The Sticking of the Week is a free tool I’ve created to give you a chance to expand your creativity on the drum kit or practice pad. This particular sticking starts with a para-diddle and moves the accent over to the “e”, and then back to the one to finish it out.
Now, the goal of this sticking and all future SOTW is not to give you a “Lick” to use, but it is designed to jump start your creativity. I know from personal experience that many times students of mine have found things on the Internet and brought them in for me to show them how to apply them. That seems to be the biggest communication gap for many web related help materials. So, I am going to try and fill that gap by explaining how to go about creating and exploring the different voices of your drum kit. You will be surprised at your ability to create parts you never thought of before after applying this concept.
First, start with this on the snare drum to get the sticking under your hands and begin to hear the accents. Start slow using some of the “largo click tracks” in the Free Tools section of the site. Use a relaxed and light approach to develop the muscle memory of the how the accented and unaccented notes feel flowing between each other.
This is where it gets fun. Try keeping one hand, right or left on the snare playing all of it’s corresponding notes, accented and unaccented. Move only the accented notes of the other hand to another part of your drum kit, (i.e. Tom, hi-Hat, ride, rim, bell, etc…). Spend several minutes doing this and then switch and let the other had do that.
Now, you can reverse this exercise by playing all the unaccented notes on other parts of your kit, and playing only the accented notes on the snare. This part of the exercise alone, could keep you busy for a while.
Think about what I just gave you to do. This was just 10% of how we could open this up. We didn’t even discuss creating a “Linear” groove pattern with it. Just one sticking mastered, or at least internalized, can sound like 20 different ones. How, because of each purposed placement and touch you apply while performing makes it take on a completely unique sound.
Hopefully this reading has triggered your creative side, and now you can go start practicing.
If you enjoyed this, and would like to know how to even create more variations with this and all future stickings, then go sign up for the Groove is King Professional Drum Training system and get ready to completely change the way you practice and play drums.
Sticking of the Week 1 Audio Clips
Audio Example - Slow
Audio Example - Medium
Audio Example - Fast