The second issue of The Percussion Circle is here! (If you missed issue #1, check it out here.) As always, this is free to copy and print. Please share with students, friends, and complete strangers. (Trust us. They’ll appreciate it.) Check out the “Name the Letter Column Contest.” Be sure to order your t-shirt of this issue’s cover. And write to us and let us know what you like, what we can improve, and what you’d like to see in the future.
Last but not least, we wish you a very happy New Year!
We have been promising some big things for a while now. Well, this one is pretty exciting! We are now regularly publishing a percussion magazine. Allow us to introduce… (drum roll, please)… The Percussion Circle!
Each issue is full of sheet music, exercises, practice tips, contests, and more! This magazine is being released completely free to the entire percussion world. It is especially designed as a resource for percussion instructors and their students, but there is enough material to keep any percussionist happy for many hours.
Videos of the exercises in the articles will gradually be released after publication, so check back frequently. Better yet, subscribe to our e-mail list and follow our social media channels to make sure you never miss any updates.
To view the magazine in full screen, use the viewer below. Click on the square in the bottom right corner. You can zoom in and out from there. You can also print copies for your convenience. (This feature is currently only available on Chrome browsers. We are looking to expand this option.)
Finally, we want to give a special thank you to Keiser Southern Music and HingeStix for their efforts in making this first issue possible. Please show them some appreciation and visit their sites. (If you want to advertise with us, send an e-mail to advertise@rudimentaluniversity.com, and we will send you the details.)
In part 1, we started with general movement principles, and we now come to basic around patterns with standard drum rudiments. This is the material I usually show first-time players on day one (exercises included below).
Over the years, many of my students have wanted to learn how to play marching tenor drums. As much as time allowed, I would work with them individually and share the resources I had. Unfortunately, I was limited by space and time. Some of the existing resources were helpful, but students still struggled to know how to go forward on their own. Well, I saw a need and decided to do something about it. In order to multiply my impact and provide a ton of new material, I Read more “How to Play Marching Tenor Drums, Part 1 of 7: Basic Movement”
A new cadence section has been created in the Free Stuff section at the top of the page. Check out these new cadences posted for your listening and playing enjoyment. More will be added in the future, but here are three to get you started.
Some of the cadences are free, and some of them cost a little bit. Overall, we want to keep these affordable and accessible for any drum line that wants to play them. Generally speaking, the free ones have a simple structure and are just fun to play. The ones available for purchase are a little more involved and took more effort to create. If you like this site and the music, please consider supporting it through purchasing one of the cadences. Thanks!
Great White – FREE
Difficulty: 2.5 – This catchy cadence gets faster and faster on each repetition. This requires some control on accented singles, 6-stroke rolls, and syncopated 16th note rhythms. It should be accessible for an average high school or good junior high drum line.
Difficulty: 1.5 – This simple cadence consists of a three-measure groove followed by a four-count solo, each time performed by a different drum line member. The solos here are just examples. They can be easy or difficult. It’s a fun opportunity to show off some improvisation and creativity! The snare line needs to be able to play a basic rock groove, which requires a little bit of independence coordination between each hand, but it should be fairly quick to learn for most percussionists who have been playing for at least a year. This cadence should be accessible for an average junior high drum line. (A high school can also have fun with it by making the solos flashier and harder!)
Difficulty: 4.5 – You may recognize this cadence as the “soundtrack” for many other videos on this site. It starts confidently with a hard-thumping bass groove and showcases some fun feature moments for every section. The snare and tenors need to be able to play their flam rudiments. Flam taps, pataflaflas, and flamacues are just some of the rudiments you’ll encounter. The bass line has split 16th note triplets and 32nd notes, some syncopated 16th notes splits, and double stroke rolls in the top two parts. The recording features five bass drums, but an alternative four-bass part is included with the purchase. (If you have six bass drums, just double the bottom part.) The cymbal part is written for two or more players, but one person can combine the parts if needed. This cadence has drive. It has attitude. It’s bad a$$. This cadence should be accessible for an average college or good high school line.
This “nerdy” tenor solo is dedicated to math geeks everywhere! This is multi-tenor drum etude #19 from The Art of Multi-Tenor Drumming. The main theme is derived from the Fibonacci sequence, and it focuses on developing sweeps, a.k.a. scrapes, around the drums.
Here are the performance notes from the book:
I originally thought of titling the next three etudes Sweep Fest #1, Sweep Fest #2, and Sweep Fest #3. (I ultimately settled on that title for etude #21 alone.) The idea was that each of the three etudes would focus on sweep patterns, but they would increase in difficulty. This idea still generally holds true, but a few ideas came to me based on mathematics, and they lent themselves to sweeps quite well. I think this gives the following etudes a very interesting structure, much more interesting than what I would have created if I was simply trying to write a sweep etude from scratch.
I was reading how the Fibonacci sequence is used in the music of Bartók, Debussy, Satie, and others. This gave me the idea to do a few experiments. The main theme of this etude, Fibonacci, is derived from the Fibonacci number sequence. In short, Read more “Multi-Tenor Drum Etude #19: “Fibonacci””
Here is a visually exciting tenor solo from The Art of Multi-Tenor Drumming. The book contains 33 multi-tenor etudes, and this is etude #6 entitled “Double Crossed.” As the title suggests, the focus is on developing crossovers.
Here are the performance notes from the book:
This flashy etude utilizes an abundance of crossovers. The first half begins with an 8th note pattern. The second half, beginning with measure 16, utilizes the same pattern with doubles on every note. Both halves feature a repeated section—the first time through at mezzo-forte, the second time at fortissimo. Be careful not to play the mezzo-forte section too loudly; otherwise the contrast will be obscured, or you will be forced to overplay the fortissimo section. Stark dynamic contrast will really help to sell the ideas in this solo. There is a more intricate 16th note sweep section during the last two lines. Take care to aim for the proper beating spots to avoid rims. You may want to review the 16th note doubles section in the rudimental exercises [contained in the book].
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Bit by bit, I am posting videos of the etudes from my book The Art of Multi-Tenor Drumming. This is multi-tenor etude #7 entitled “The Fool in the Mirror.” Its main theme is pretty catchy, and it focuses on developing 16th note patterns around the drums.
Here are the performance notes from the book:
There is nothing in this etude exceptionally flashy from a visual standpoint, but the melody is quite catchy, and this is one of my favorite etudes to play in this book. (Of course, I think all of the etudes are great!) The whole piece gradually moves from playful syncopated rhythms to more intense driving rhythms, but it returns to a light-hearted note at the very end. The first section (mm. 1-5) establishes the playful syncopated main theme. The second section (mm. 6-9) contrasts the first with a slightly less syncopated 8th note double stop quasi-groove pattern. The third section (mm. 10-13) is a more driving segue that reiterates the main ideas of the first section. The fourth section (mm. 14-19) is the longest (with repeats), and it is the most driving; it has very little syncopation, and it focuses on some basic paradiddle patterns mixed with doubles and 16th note singles rhythms. The final section (mm. 20-22) is the shortest, and it caps off everything by quickly highlighting the previous themes.
Here is the next installment of videos from my book The Art of Multi-Tenor Drumming. In addition to thousands of exercises, the book contains 33 etudes. This is etude #27 entitled “Maze.”
Here are the performance notes from the book:
This etude is dedicated to DCI snare champion, Ken Mazur. His books have done a lot to help me grow in my playing, and they were a great inspiration to me in writing this book. The etudes in this section were largely inspired by the “Rudimental Performance” etudes in his orange book [The Basic Technique of Rudimental Drumming]. In fact, this etude can be played as a duet with the final “Rudimental Performance” etude, or it can be played as a stand-alone solo. If played as a duet, the first two measures are a solo introduction, and the snare part would come in on measure 3. I have always loved the snare etude, and I thought it would be nice to have a tenor version of it. (With the added arounds and sweep patterns, the tenor part is slightly more difficult, but you have to be a pretty good player to play either version well.)
In adapting this etude to tenors, I looked to the Marty Hurley/Lee Hansen snare/tenor duets, such as Phantom of the Phield and Phantom Phrenzy. Of course, Ken Mazur was a student of Marty Hurley, and you can hear Hurley’s influence in Mazur’s writing. The Hurley solos were originally written as stand-alone solos. Later, Lee Hansen (another student of Hurley’s) wrote tenor accompaniments that could be played as either a stand-alone tenor solo or a duet with the snare part. These solos were all written for quads (four drums), and I decided to do the same here.
As you play through this etude, you will find that the structure has a really good sense of momentum, and a lot of different rudiments are incorporated. It’s a lot of fun to play, and there are several rudimental surprises throughout. Whether you play it as an individual solo or as a duet with a good snare drummer, it should thoroughly engage any audience.
