Exercises

We begin line exercises with a tap-off, usually played by the center snare, which sets the tempo for the exercise. Mark time starting on your left foot. The entire foot comes off the ground flat, and returns flat. Sticks out sharply on beat 3 before playing, and in sharply on beat 2 after playing.

The first exercise is Eights. This gets the feet and hands moving, and the brain thinking about timing, technique, and playing clean with the line. Click here for a video of Eights, with tap-off. Variations include volume and speed.

Next we work on controlling the sticks by playing eights with crescendos and decrescendos. Click here for a video of Eights with crescendo, and here for decrescendo.

Next we stay with eights, but add accents. An accent-tap exercise like this is often called "Bucs" (or "Bucks"), and there are many possible variations.

Now we move the accents around on top of a 16th note pattern. This is called an accent grid. You can grid flams, diddles, etc. Focus on keeping your feet and the 16th notes perfectly steady, simply adding the accents on top of the pattern. Click here for a video.

Here's the classic double beat exercise from Fred Sanford, one of the founding-fathers of modern marching percussion. Use this to practice controlling the second beat of the double so that it has the same intensity as the first. The triple-beat portion extends the exercise to strengthen your control. Do not attempt to play each beat with the wrist, but use fingers and rebound to play the 2nd and 3rd beats in each combination. Click here for a slow video. Click here for a faster video.

Here are 3 straightforward roll exercises which build 32nd note rolls on a 16th note check pattern. The first is a slow starter pattern, then Roll Builder 1 begins each roll pattern on the beat, finally Roll Builder 2 begins with a tap -- thus these are called tap rolls. Click here for Roll Starter. Click here for Part 1. Click here for Part 2.

The objective of this following exercise is to improve the player's ability to change rhythms from duple based to triplet based subdivision. Click here for a video.

Triplet Sub is a more advanced roll exercise which requires considerably more concentration. Click here for a video.

Flam accent #1 is one of the essential drum rudiments. Click here for a video.

For the more advanced student, you may wish to try hybrids with flam-diddles, flam-fives, and flam-drags. There are many more possibilities.

Applications

The Illini Drumline takes the fundamental rudiments and applies them to their street beats, music, and in-the-stands grooves. Here's an application of Bucs: "Beer Cheer"

Grandpa Latin is an Illini street beat which uses simple accented 16th note patterns, like those in the accent grid. Click here for an audio file. Click here for a video, where the part has been modified with visuals.

"Long" is the classic Illin Cadence, brought to the Illini by Russ Weber. Click here for the snare part. Click here for a video.