Exercises for Timing, Precision, Single Strokes, Subdividing & Odd Grouping
There are lots of great exercises for developing timing, precision, single strokes, subdivision & odd grouping! Make sure you do all these with a metronome
(1) Joe Morello
In Morello's Classic Book Master Studies, Joe offers an excercise to improve Timing. Start very slowly, playing each one for one bar; each measure adds more notes! One per beat!
Hear an audio example at Metronome Marking = to 63 (which demonstrates the whole sequence excluding the quarter note triplets)
Quarter Notes
Quarter Note Triplets
8th Notes
Triplet
16th Notes
5's - Quintuplets
6's - Sextuplets
7's - Septuplets
8's - 32nd Notes
9's!
10's!
11's!
12's!
(2) Billy Cobham
At a Billy Cobham Masterclass at Birdland in NYC, Billy shared this Indian Counting Exercise:
-Put your hands together in front of your face (as if you were praying).
-Start clapping very slowly. This will be the Quarter Note Pulse.
-Now do one measure of 4 beats for each of these, counting aloud. Make sure each count is evenly spaced. Each "one" will align with the Quarter Note clap!:
"one two, one two, one two, one two"
"one two three, one two three, one two three, one two three"
Go all the way up 10!
Two more exercises to be added soon!