The 15 Minute WailHere is an exercise concept which can serve as a wonderful technical warm up and a vehicle for experimentation with spontaneous musical thematic ideas. I call it the 15 minute wail. Each time you play a fifteen minute wail, go ahead and play intensely for exactly fifteen minutes. Whatever specific exercises you play, please give it your best most focused effort. When you play a fifteen minute wail, please utilize a unified resource of emotional intensity plus conscious musical improvisation plus physical high level activity. Please endeavor not to simply ponder the exercise separate from intense physical effort, and please try to get involved with the material and engross yourself emotionally with the material as well. Here is the overarching concept to use in performing the 15 minute wail. Please utilize this overarching concept for all the various 15 minute wail musical forms. Then please utilize the Sticking concepts and Orchestration concepts which constitute each individual 15 minute wail: Note: When practicing the 15 minute wail forms and exercises, please consult a teacher and utilize proper technique. When practicing these exercises, you can avoid repetitive stress injury and practice in a preventative fashion by avoiding excessive hyperextension (bending up) or hyperflexion (bending down) of the wrist. Also please be sensitive to the way your body feels. Utilize the rebound of the stick and take a loose approach without undue tension. Please feel free to use these exercises to literally warm up the muscles of your fingers and arms. Then you can push yourself to new heights of achievement without limitation. Each 15 minute wail consists of an overarching concept of how to improvise, plus a sticking/orchestration concept of what stickings and orchestrations to use around the set. Please improvise using the given sticking/orchestration concepts for 15 minutes exactly. Utilize various dynamic levels. Please pay close attention to the feeling in your hands and body. As you warm up and feel more fluid, please increase the tempo. Don't stop playing. Please feel free to record yourself performing the 15 minute wail for added possibilities in terms of musical study. Utilize good even subdivisions of the time as you play the fills. Don't play to a metronome, but endeavor to play steady time and compare your playing later to a metronome. As you play the 15 minute wail, utilize dynamics from pp to ff. Always endeavor to play evenly and musically. Don't stop Don't stop Don't stop whatever you do... Push yourself to your peak volume and speed and sustain it as best you can while still playing musically and evenly. Utilize lower dynamics and slower tempos if need be in order to keep the playing going without stopping... During the last 3 minutes of the wail, please "give it all you got". Play as loud and fast as you can, and prioritize speed and volume over accuracy or musicality or evenness. Just sustain the highest level of intensity you can for 3 minutes straight. Bring the Improvisation to a climactic ending at the 15 minute point. Please try to work up a sweat each time you play the 15 minute wail. This exercise is tailor made for the working professional or family man or busy student who wishes to utilize his time on the instrument efficiently. That's the concept: when you play this exercise, just WAIL! Here we go: please say these syllables while clapping at the same time. The following two sticking/orchestration concepts together constitute the "Singles Bash Wail". Please perform each concept individually, master each concept and improvise using the two concepts interchangeably. Sticking Orchestration Concept: 1) Play a steady stream of 16th notes using single stroke sticking on the snare. Improvise various accents. Sticking Orchestration Concept: 2) Play the material in Step 1, except substitute bass drum and cymbal unison instead of accents. That's it! Here is a preliminary exercise to help you develop various improvisations involved in the Singles Bash Wail: This preliminary wail exercise is designed to facilitate your fluency using Single strokes with double accents:
r= RH on snare drum,
Directions: Practice the sticking rlRL rlRL over and over at various speeds and dynamic levels for 15 minutes. Also practice rLRl rLRl rLRl rLRl over and over at various speeds and dynamic levels for 15 minutes. Here is another preliminary "Wail" exercise: This exercise is designed to facilitate fluency in performing 16th notes in various groupings of notes. Please note that this exercise utilizes 16th notes in groupings of 1,2,3,4,5,6,7 and 8 notes each:
Directions: Play a steady stream of 16th notes using the following stickings. Please repeat the following sticking pattern over and over without pause for 15 minutes straight.
r l r l r l r l Here's a 15 minute wail exercise utilizing double strokes:
Sticking/orchestration concept: Play a steady stream of 16th notes using Double stroke stickings as follows: repeat this sticking pattern over and over without pause for 15 minutes straight.
rrll rrll rrll rrll rrll rrll rrll rrlll
rrll rrll rrll rrll rrll rrll rrll rrll
rrll rrll rrll rrll rrll rrll rrll rrll
Sticking/orchestration concept: Please utilize 16th notes in groups of 6 notes beginning each group with three accented notes. Directions: Please play the following sticking pattern over and over for 15 minutes straight.
rlrl rlrl rlrl rlrl rlrl rlrl rlrl rlrl
Sticking Orchestration Concept: Play a steady stream of 16th notes using single stroke sticking on the snare drum. Utilize repeated groups of five notes each starting with three accents in a row followed by two unaccented notes as follows. Please repeat the following sticking pattern over and over for 15 minutes straight without pause:
rlrl rlrl rlrl rlrl rlrl rlrl rlrl rlrl Sticking Orchestration Concept: Play a steady stream of 16th notes using single stroke sticking on the snare drum. Emphasize groups of five notes each starting with two unaccented notes followed by three accents in a row as follows: Please repeat the following sticking over and over for 15 minutes straight without pause:
rlrl rlrl rlrl rlrl rlrl rlrl rlrl rlrl
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