C.A.T.S. — 2021

C.A.T.S. (Cloned Accent-Tap Singles) — 2021 is an accent-tap and singlestrokes warm-up that employs doublestops in order to match stick motions between the hands before splitting the hands up into the singlestroke patterns. This is the same idea behind Singles a la Clone from page 5 of Twelve Eight-Bar Exercises in 12/8 to Stave off Cabin Fever (With Play-Along Practice Recordings) as well as Mantra #7 Singlestroke Rolls / Consilience from page 5 of Mantras For Rudimental Snare Drum, now available in a hip ensemble warm-up that would likely suit many collegiate and independent drumlines very well!

The concept is further described in the aforementioned Cabin Fever book:

The lead-hand breakdowns of accented singlestroke rolls and singlestroke tap rolls will generally have different tendencies. A downstroke followed by taps tends to feel different than a bunch of taps followed by an upstroke. This exercise aims to unify your approach to upstrokes/downstrokes within the context of the different accented singlestroke rudiments. The doublestops with only one hand accented at a time will expose your tendencies on upstrokes and buck motions, allowing you to more smoothly transition into singlestroke rolls and singlestroke tap rolls. Keep it smooth, people. This is another great one to try with brushes, drum set sticks, and with a towel on your drum or pad.

Edit 15 December 2021: Fixed a typo in the last measure of the snare part.

Pivot Point

Pivot Point gets the hands moving and warm, with particular attention paid to establishing and focusing the fulcrum on each hand. The fulcrum is the most important part of any grip—it is the point about which the stick is allowed to pivot within the hand. This kind of freedom for the stick to move within the hand is important for allowing the stick to resonate when it strikes the drumhead.

Additionally, however, having the pivot point remain consistent across all rudimental content is another crucial component of grip fundamentals. How the stick resonates will change depending on where the fulcrum is positioned along the stick. How the fingers are allowed to work against the rebound of a stroke to achieve additional bounces also depends heavily on how the fulcrum is constructed. The focus for exercises that do not demand active engagement from the fulcrum/fingers is to force ourselves to maintain a well-constructed fulcrum anyway. If we make sure it’s always there when we “don’t need it,” then it will always be ready for a quick crush, diddle, etc. as needed, without having to constantly adjust the stick within the hand to achieve differing rudimental demands.

The purpose of a legatos exercise is to establish your baseline approach to grip and motion. Make sure you’re establishing the same grip and motion fundamentals that you will apply to everything else!

These ideas are further described in Quality Control for Rudimental Drummers:

The fulcrum is the most important part of a grip. For many situations, the stick functions as an extension of the hand, moving just as the hand does; however, the stick is also allowed some freedom to move within the hand, especially necessary for faster figures that require action from the fingers. The fulcrum is the pivot point for that motion, which comes into play at the moments when the bead strikes the drumhead. It is the part of the hand that actively exerts force on the stick (through engagement of the muscles) in order to hold onto it, and it should be well established at all times. It may become more engaged for crushes and faster multi-beat figures, but it is always present, even when you think it may not need to be. [p. 12 Digital Download Edition]

Slow Lifts

Slow Lifts (2021) is the flams builder for everyone! It’s all about flam fundamentals: specifically, dropping the grace note from a low height and then slowly lifting to the accent height to comfortably occupy time and space with motion. Snares and tenors have a three-height pattern to accentuate the distinction between a true grace note and a primary note at any dynamic. This warm-up is well suited to a line with performers of many different skill levels.

21st Century Sanford Man

21st Century Sanford Man (2021) is a truly fundamental way to work on double beats and to connect double beat fundamentals to the doublestroke roll. Segments of the exercise must be performed with a “maximum rebound” (or “pause at the up”) approach, whereby the performers focus on allowing every stroke to return to the attack height and simply stay there before the next attack. This extreme approach to emphasizing rebound allows performers to work through their issues in maximizing both rebound and velocity (sound production) in both double beat and doublestroke roll contexts.

Double Hang Time

Double Hang Time (2021) focuses on the concept of “hang time” as it pertains to connecting the “Sanford” approach to the doublestroke roll. Second-note rebound is especially important in doublestroke rolls, so it is great to have an exercise that challenges this aspect of doublestroke fundamentals. Unfortunately, the aggressive feel of the Sanford-type pattern often translates poorly into doublestroke roll fundamentals because of the difference in “hang time” (the time between the second note of a doublestroke and the very next note on the same hand, during which the stick is rebounded but not being thrown into the drum). This exercise juxtaposes the Sanford pattern with an inverted roll breakdown so that the aggressive, high-velocity, high-rebound approach facilitated by the Sanford pattern can be applied with the increased hang time of a doublestroke roll pattern.

A common tendency is to lighten up on the doublestroke roll in order to more easily fill the hang time with motion; less velocity into the drumhead means a slower rebound, which means your hand is not awkwardly paused at the attack height during the hang time. The challenge is to play with high velocity, allow a lot of rebound, and be comfortable waiting for the next attack. In this manner, the benefits of a Sanford-type exercise can be best applied to doublestroke roll patterns.

Doublestops

Doublestops (2007) is a legatos exercise that includes doublestops to encourage players to match stick motion between the hands. I cooked this up right out of high school, when I thought I might end up teaching somewhere (I didn’t that year). It’s super simple, and probably very unoriginal… but I looked around the place, and I noticed a dearth of “8 on a Hand” on Fat Matt Drums, so I figured I’d go back to basics and look wayyyyy in the back of the vault for something. I was really pleased to notice the second and third page’s variations with dynamics… those are lots of fun to work on.

Ultimately, I don’t think I used this exercise with any line I taught; however, in retrospect, it would have been a good one—reaping the benefits of making doublestops a regular part of the rehearsal programme, instead of merely a variation to “8s” that you occasionally call upon.

The benefits—and pitfalls—of using doublestops in simple contexts like this are described in Quality Control for Rudimental Drummers:

In either [traditional or matched] grip, doublestops will be a great tool for matching stick motions on different rudiments. However, if your hands are poorly-coordinated and the doublestops are dirty, there may be a tendency to rely on larger muscle groups to achieve the strokes (e.g., using a “karate chop” style forearm motion instead of rotation at the wrist), as these muscle groups are easier to match in order to clean up the sound (in matched grip and traditional grip). This is a major pitfall that negates any benefit to rehearsing a pattern as doublestops, so make sure that you are not building such habits. [p. 10 Digital Download Edition]

[…]

Both hands play identical parts as doublestops, and each hand checks the timing and sound quality of the other. Additionally, you can observe how the sticks move to ensure that both sticks are achieving the rudimental demands using identical motions. This practice is especially useful with a mirror and/or video camera.

[…]

When the hands are playing identical patterns, hand-to-hand differences in how the smaller muscle groups achieve rudimental demands can cause a frustrating amount of dirt (rhythmic imprecision), especially in traditional grip, where all motions except for the “karate chop” forearm assistance motion are completely different between the hands. A temptation will be to rely on larger muscle groups to achieve clean doublestops, as these are the motions that are easiest to match between your two hands; however, this practice will lead to an overreliance on forearm motion and the building of bad habits.

Accept that there will be dirt at first and that it may be difficult to eliminate. Still, commit to good technique and to truly matching the motions of the two hands. The purpose […] is to challenge you; do not take any shortcuts on the path to improvement. [p. 23 Digital Download Edition]

Chow Down

Chow Down (2021) is an all-around and all-in-one ensemble warm-up targeting the high school level. It consists of five “movements”: 1. Legatos, 2. Bucks, 3. Doubles I, 4. Doubles II, and 5. Triplet Rolls. Each movement could be used as a standalone warm-up, and you can gradually work each movement into the full sequence as the season progresses, so that you have both a warm-up book, and a cohesive ensemble warm-up, however you are able to deploy it. It may be beneficial for the snares to learn the tenor part in some places, as some passages involve the snares playing a fundamental exercise pattern while the tenors play an even more fundamental breakdown of the motion involved in that pattern.

This warm-up was originally conceived for tri-toms instead of quad or quint tenors, so that is the arrangement you will hear in the Virtual DrumLine (VDL) recording. I am providing the score to both arrangements here: