Here’s a collection of brief exercises working out some basic combinations of strokes— full strokes, down strokes, taps, and up strokes. Called the Level System by some, it refers to how high the stick is above the playing surface at the beginning and end of a stroke. You need some kind of control over that to play many of the rudiments, for your accented singles to sound any good, and for general control over your sticks and dynamics.
Here I’ve isolated some normal sequences of moves, putting enough space around them to get a clean shot at doing them accurately, without being pulled into something else by the normal flow of continuous playing.
You begin each stroke with the stick already at the correct height for its dynamic level— high position if it’s supposed to be loud, low position if it’s soft. On the rebound of the stroke you move the stick to the correct position for the next note— low or high.
To summarize:
Full stroke – stick starts high / ends high
Down stroke – starts high / ends low
Tap – starts low / ends low
Up stroke – starts low / ends high
We want two distinct heights for each kind of note— 6-9″ for the accents, 1.5-3″ for the taps. It’s important not to lift the stick before playing any note— you set the height for the next note at the end of each note; you’re already in position at the correct height, so move the stick directly downward to make the note. I take a few minutes to work with students to calm the little habitual lift most of them do at the start of a stroke.
You can add additional beats of rest if you need them. To do continuous rhythms, you might move over to Gary Chaffee’s Patterns vol. 2 – Stickings. The accent portion of the book goes through all of the normal close spacings of accents, with types of strokes indicated.
It is easy to overdo it thinking about this type of movement as you play. Usually thinking just one of these movements when playing a rudiment or technical passage, will make everything else fall in place— often just one upstroke or downstroke.
For anyone looking to go much further working this out completely, I recommend Jeff Johnson’s book The Level System, which does just that.
I am happy to help you with any of the materials on the site, and with anything else drumming related— contact me for private lessons, online world wide, or in person in Portland, Oregon. All levels of players, and all people, are welcome.
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