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Powering Up the Double Stroke

by Michael Green

Double strokes are cool...very cool. It's fun and satisfying to develop the kind of control it takes to work them up to lightning speeds. So now what do you do with them? There a many ways to use the double stroke: moving them around the set, breaking them up between two different drums, incorporating them into grooves as ghost strokes, the list goes on and on. For this issue of Percussion Sessions® I would like to present an exercise designed to help you get the most out of your double strokes. The focus of this exercise is not speed, but control over the subdivision in which you play the doubles and also smoothly moving from one subdivision to another. By having control over a variety of subdivisions, you'll be able to tap into the full potential of the double stoke. Remember—stay relaxed and centered.

First play each repeated section alone with a metronome and without the hi-hat.
Next practice moving through each section without stopping, still without the hi-hat.
Then practice the each repeated section with the hi-hat.
Finally, play the exercise as written, focusing on control, precision, and finesse.

Check out the audio!

Well that should be enough to get you started on getting the most out of your double strokes. I hope that this article has been informative and fun. Feel free to email comments to me at michaeldrums@gmail.com.

Happy playing,
Michael