Snare-drum exercise
RTSK
Rich Thompson Stone Killer — a paradiddle-based exercise for building speed, endurance, and hand-turnaround control.
How to practice this
This is an exercise my teacher Rich Thompson taught me. The title stands for "Rich Thompson Stone Killer," which I assume is a nod to George Lawrence Stone's "Stone Killer" exercise. This exercise helps build speed, endurance, and control. It will also help the student begin to develop a feel for the way in which paradiddle rudiments turn the hands around. We can use these turnaround properties when we improvise to help us navigate the instrument.
There are a couple of variations. Firstly, we try to play the exercise with complete evenness of the hands. Secondly we allow the lead hand to speak a little bit louder than its counterpart. We can also practice cutting the length of each sticking in half. As written we play each sticking for 16 measures, but you can try 8, then 4, then 2, then 1, always preserving the turnaround and using it to switch to the next sticking.