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In order to better understand the
notation and height systems used in this music, download the Fat Matt
Drums notation legend: 2-Page
Document: pdf (228 KB)
Warm-ups are exercises which
have been elaborated into ensemble pieces. Quad round patterns, bass
drum splits, and figures meant to be groovy and fat—rather than
simply educational—characterize warm-ups. Some of the
specificity and focus of the basic exercises is sacrificed in favour
of variety, demand for ensemble cohesion, and challenge to the
mind.
These warm-ups are provided for the
benefit of anyone who can use them; I grant permission for the
distribution and performance of these pieces, provided my name and my
site's URL remain on the sheet music.
If you want to re-arrange or
otherwise modify any of these warm-ups, send me an e-mail to ask for
permission. I will not withhold permission; however, it will benefit
me to know what you do with my material, and a quick correspondence
and a little bit of information is a small price to ask for my stuff.
I also would love feedback on this material, so drop me a line to
tell me what you think: 
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I inflicted Dub/Huk on the
Athens Drive HS Drumline in order to help work on
doublestrokes: specifically, second note quality in
doublestroke rolls, and sixteenth-note consistency (timing
and quality) for paradiddle figures.
The first half of the piece builds the
doublestroke roll and inverted roll from their one-handed
breakdowns. I like working on inverted rolls because the
second note of the doublestroke is placed on the eighth note
partials, rather than sixteenth-note upbeat partials; i.e.
deficiencies in timing and quality of those notes will be
more obvious to the ear and mind, allowing these
deficiencies to be corrected.
The second half works on a syncopated
hucka-dig (one-handed breakdown of a paradiddle-diddle)
pattern and then fills it in to the corresponding paradiddle
figure. Ensemble timing is tricky for this part; accents on
the fourth sixteenth note partial will tend to be late,
while those on the upbeat eighth notes will tend to be
early. This warm-up is a huge bag of mess without dedicated
practice with a metronome.
The bass drum part is such that all
the written notes could be played as a single unison
part.
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2010
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My favourite little gem from the old
web site (minus the triple-beat stuff that never made
sense), Swingerbeat highlights three different
contexts for doublestrokes: the second note rebounding to
re-attack at the same height as the first stroke, the second
note being downstroked to re-attack at the tap height, and
the second note being upstroked to re-attack at the accent
height.
While there really isn't any emphasis
on paradiddle figures, the hucka-dig motion is employed
heavily.
The last bar of the piece is very much
like the tap-off. In a line setting, it would probably work
to just repeat the warm-up as if the last bar is the tap off
(i.e. add the pickup from the last 24th-note of bar 1 to the
final bar, and resume at bar 2).
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2008
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Slurred Ruff was used by the NC
State and Athens Drive HS drumlines to work on tap sound
quality between doublestrokes and single beats. Whether your
doublestrokes tend to overpower the single beats, or vice
versa, your ears will pick up on it.
Timing-wise, one tendency seems to be
(I don't know why; it's just what I've seen) to tighten up
the ruffs on the all-tap bars: i.e. to play something like
1 &a2 &a3 &a4 &a on the single-height
bars. A constant doublestroke motion on one hand must be
maintained, whether the other hand executes a "buck" motion,
or a rebounded "8 on a Hand" motion.
The bass drum part is such that all
the written notes could be played as a single unison
part.
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2009
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Paradiddle Flow is a simple
warm-up that emphasizes 16th-note timing consistency within
different stickings (puh-duh-duh, paradiddle,
paradiddle-diddle, slurred six-stroke roll). Practice at a
single height (i.e. all taps) will build comfort with the
different stickings. Practice at different accent heights
will build comfort with the downstrokes involved.
The bass drum part is such that all
the written notes could be played as a single unison
part.
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2009
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Diddle me Timbers is a
paradiddles warm-up with a little more variety than
Paradiddle Flow. The double paradiddle rudiment makes
an appearance here as well, so don't misread them as
paradiddle-diddles.
The bass drum part is such that all
the notes with stickings could be played as a single unison
part, leaving the notes without written stickings as a
split. The bass line is then challenged as much as the
snares or quads to perform paradiddle-related rudimental
demands.
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2007
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High Five is an all-around
doublestroke étude; double-beats, paradiddles, and
rolls (slurred and straight) must be mastered in order to
pull this one off. The way it is constructed, isolatation
and repetition of individual measures will be a useful
practice tool in putting together this warm-up. This piece
was first performed by the 2009 NC State
Drumline.
This one also has double paradiddles,
so don't misread the stickings... I know people don't write
those too often anymore.
The bass drum part is such that all
the written notes could be played as a unison
part.
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2009
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Meter Trip focuses on
transitions between sixteenth-note doublestrokes and triplet
diddles. The bass part could probably be embellished a lot
more for variety, and the ending is abrupt and uninspired,
so this is more of an idea for a warm-up than it is a
complete piece. I never used it, but I intended to use it in
a setting where the disparity in demand between the basses
and upper battery would have been appropriate (i.e. young
bass line, so basic metric transitions).
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2009
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Played ad nauseam by the 2011 Athens
Drive winter line, Seven 8&25 is an ensemble
warm-up built from a seven-stroke rolls exercise and the
ever-famous 8&25. I couldn't help but quote the
end of my high school's triplet diddles exercise (by Will
Goodyear)... it's hip.
The first half of the piece emphasizes
the attacks of roll figures; the first triplet diddle is
either on a downbeat or an eighth note upbeat. The second
half emphasizes quality and endurance... mostly endurance,
but we all love 8&25, right?
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2011
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Kicked in the Grace is a
four-measure flam étude that employs a myriad of
grace-note contexts: flam-accents, flam-taps, swiss
triplets, inverted flam-taps, etc. The scope is broadened by
adding drags to produce different variations.
In a line setting, the variations can
be chained together as appropriate. Additionally, the snare
and quad parts, by ending on an eighth note upbeat, allow
"off the left" variations to be seamlessly added to the
sequence.
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2007
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Blat combines triplestrokes
with hugadigs (one-handed breakdown of a flam-tap) and flam
rudiments. The more thinly-written middle part centres
around what's called the "Cary lick" in the quad line, with
a flam accent breakdown in the snare line.
The way the heights are notated, there
is a slight difference between the threes of the
triplestroke bars, and those of the flam-tap bars, though
not every instructor/line makes such a distinction. I think
of triplestrokes as being allowed a bit more freedom to
rebound, while hugadigs are controlled a bit more to achieve
a lower height on the third note (the grace note of the
flam-tap).
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2010
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