'F H H F' 16th Grouping Exercise

In this lesson you will be learning a pattern built of four sixteenth notes that can be used as a co ordination exercise and as a building block for fills. The idea is very simple but may take a little work to get the limbs moving correctly. As the title suggests, these four sixteenth notes will be played between the hands and the feet with the first on the foot, followed by two hands followed by another foot. With the phrase starting and ending on a kick, there will be two quick sixteenth notes together. I will show versions where this is played on both one and two feet.

To preserve natural single stroke sticking the two hands would be played 'R L', however with them being surrounded by feet any sticking can be used. Your options are 'R L', 'L R', 'R R' or 'L L'. It is worth practicing the exercise with all of these.


Eighth Note Versions

As with most exercises, I'll start by showing a slowed down version of the pattern. Both of the examples shown below are the full pattern written as eighth notes, on the left you have a single footed version and on the right a double kick version. As eighth notes each grouping fills half a bar, so it is played twice in a full bar.

The eighth note version of the exercise.

In the double kick version the feet are shown are going left to right. This can also be reversed.

TASK

  1. Using the 2 minute rule, get the exercise up to a tempo of at least 150bpm.
  2. Experiment with different stickings for the hands
  3. Orchestrate the hands.

Sixteenth Note Versions

Here is the full speed versions. Each block now fills one beat so there are four occurances in each 4/4 bar.

The eighth note version of the exercise.

As in the previous exercise, in the double kick version the feet are shown are going left to right. This can also be reversed.

TASK

  1. Using the 2 minute rule, get the exercise up to a tempo of at least 130bpm.
  2. Experiment with different stickings for the hands
  3. Orchestrate the hands.

Lessons

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