Uptempo Stone method — 02

Here's a little companion to our other uptempo method using Stick Contrtol by George L. Stone. This is more of an open system, and you may do it without even getting that deeply into the book exercises— you can do plenty with just the first four patterns: RLRL / LRLR / RRLL / LLRR. See what you can do with at least patterns 1-13 from page 5.

What we do is this: The practice patterns Stick Control are played as quarter notes, with the Rs played on the bass drum, and the Ls played on the snare drum with the left hand. To that we add quarter notes on the cymbal, and 2 and 4 on the hihat with the left foot. We then displace each note of the pattern by an 8th note— playing them an 8th note early or late. Take a look, it will make sense...

There are some additional guidelines that help develop a modern texture with this. Mainly:

• Don't stop. Between exercises, play time on the cymbal and hihat. I don't normally beat myself to death playing the straight bop cymbal pattern— I will mix it up.
  
• You don't have to play endless unbroken repetitions; once you learn the little lick for that pattern/displacement, play one or two measures of it, alternating with several measure of time. For the first three book patterns, RLRL/LRLR/RRLL, you can do each little two-note crux lick in isolation, as well.
  
• On the ride cymbal, play quarter notes when you're playing the book exercises, with a broken bop pattern in between. Also reverse that: play the exercises once or twice with a straight bop pattern, with quarter notes on the cymbal in between.
  
• Find a phrase-ending accent with each of the practice patterns; play a strong accent on the drum and cymbal, and tie the cymbal through the following beat. It's better if the accent is not always on 1.
  

Suggested tempo is around 280-350, or half note = 140-175. Faster than it gets a little silly, but do whatever you feel you must.

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