Accent Practice Exercise for Snare Drum
This exercise was created to support the learning of playing paradiddles with accents along with a metronome at 70bpm in the Grade 2 Rockschool technical exercises 2012-18 syllabus. I have also suggested to try practicing the sheet between 60 and 120bpm, with or...
Developing rock grooves with quarter note hi hats – Grade 2-3
I wrote this sheet initially to give students an idea of the type of things they could do to start off developing the drum beat for the guitar solo in a Grade 3 Rockschool song called Overrated (2012-18 syllabus). This sheet is also good for learning to develop the...
8 snare drum sight reading exercises for grade 2
If you already have some drum sheet music reading knowledge, try to read the sheet music and play the bar of music, and then listen to the mp3 audio to see if you are right. These are unofficial exercises to help prepare for the Sight Reading Element of Rockschool...
How To Tune Drums – Exam Question
When tuning your drum skins you need to make sure to tighten the tuning pegs evenly (1/4 of a turn each time). In addition, make sure to tune the pegs in the correct order (see picture below) so that the tightening pressure on the drum head is distributed evenly. The...
5 Sight Reading Example Tests for Rockschool Grade 3 Drums – Unofficial Practice Tests
These 5 practice tests are to help with practicing for grade 3 sight reading on drums. This is aimed at the 2006-12 syllabus, so when this is out of date, you should if the grade 3 sight reading is still snare drum based and in the same sort of format. Update: The...
Creative Exercises for Paradiddile-diddle in sextuplet sixteenth notes
Here are some creative examples of how you can expand on the ‘Paradiddile-diddle in sextuplet sixteenth notes’ exercise 1 from Grade 7 technical exercises. There are accents (>) underneath each line of rhythms to watch out for. There are also ghost...
Improvisation Test examples and ideas for Rockschool Grade 1 Drums exam
Students should improvise in the exam (don’t memorise this sheet). This sheet is for if you are stuck for ideas on how to improvise, then these should help you to learn the type of things to do. Imagine the sheet above with only the first bar of each line shown...
Drum Solo Exercises Using Six Stroke Roll With RLLRRL Sticking
This is an exercise that can be used in your practice schedule, and can be used as drum fills in your playing. This 6 Stroke Roll rudiment (played on the snare drum) is part of the technical exercises in Rockschool Grade 7 (Alternative paradiddle-diddle in sextuplet...