NCSU Drumline Exercises 2011 | The Study Guide | Unused Battery Audition

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This comprehensive exercise packet that I compiled with erstwhile NCSU Drumline instructor John Antonelli covers legatos, accent-tap figures, doublestrokes, paradiddles, rolls, flam rudiments, triplestrokes, timing exercises, and grids. The 72 exercises consist of our original work, as well as "stock" pieces that you will find in almost any audition packet.

 

The Study Guide: Bare-Bones Basics for Better Hands is a small packet adapted from this content, but I have trimmed off a lot of fat in order to compile a more focused repository of essentials that will benefit anyone who is looking to get better at battery percussion. There is some additional material, adapted from Quality Control, to round out this great starting point for what to work on if you really want to roll with the big dogs.

Unused Battery Audition is the packet that never was…

A great variety of different things were cooked up on the way to formalizing the 2011 NCSU Drumline Exercise Packet, and an interesting subset lands here in this previously unused battery audition packet.

This packet was intended for an advanced high school indoor program which ultimately did use much of the material presented here—just not necessarily in this form and not for audition purposes. Some of the content is exactly the same as entries in the 2011 NCSU packet too. So why share this packet at all? For two reasons: its unique construction and its clear purpose.

Many of the exercises in this packet are constructed as sequences of smaller exercises, which lends this material well to high repetition of short passages. This is one powerful rehearsal methodology for cleaning fundamentals and music. However, the sequences also put each shorter exercise in a larger context, providing an intuitive vehicle for challenging mental strength and connecting narrow musical applications to the broader technique.

Sometimes it pays off simply to grab a solid chunk of material and engage with it, and this packet gives you exactly that!