Drumset exercise
"Chorale" Preliminary Exercises
Seven 5/8 and 7/8 polymeter exercises that build a 35-eighth-note cycle — coordination and a framework for improvisation.
How to practice this
Each exercise is separated by a repeat sign. Play each exercise slowly for a long time until you are comfortable with it. Always remember you can simplify!
● Exercise no. 1 puts the hands and feet in 5/8.
● Exercise no. 2 puts the hands in 7/8 while the feet remain in 5/8. The bass drum emphasizes the downbeats of the first and fourth measure. Remember you can simplify! Take the bass drum out until you get comfortable with the hands and hi hat. Try the hi hat with no splashes at first.
● Exercise no. 3 puts the hands and feet in 7/8.
● Exercise no. 4 puts the hands in 5/8 while the feet remain in 7/8.
● Exercise no. 5 is rhythmically similar to no. 2, however in this instance the ride cymbal plays a 7/8 clave (2+2+3) while the left hand fills in the missing eighth notes on the snare. The foot ostinato is identical to no. 2.
● Exercise no. 6 has an identical foot ostinato to nos. 2 & 5. The right hand plays our 7/8 clave (2+2+3) and the left hand plays two backbeats that occur commonly in the song.
● Exercise no. 7 is pure 7/8. Once again, the left hand plays two backbeats that occur commonly in the song.
Exercises 6 and 7 are meant to be used as frameworks for improvisation! This whole piece is made up of a poly-meter that can be heard as five measure phrases of 7/8, or seven measure phrases of 5/8 — a thirty-five beat cycle. The second backbeat in both examples falls at the same point in this cycle: the twenty-sixth eighth note! This allows you to use that as a pivot point when phrasing in 7/8. The backbeat in the fourth measure of exercise no. 7 marks ten eighth notes from the top of the next cycle, allowing you to imply or outright switch to 5/8 a measure-and-a-half before the cycle ends.
Use my free online metronome to practice this. Set it to 5/8, accenting the first and third beats, or to 7/8 accenting the first, third, and fifth beats. This will get you used to playing these patterns while hearing the typical claves used to outline the meters. Once you've tried each exercise with the original meter, try them with the opposite one (i.e. the 5/8 exercises with a 7/8 met and vice versa).