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Rhythm - Etude 4

Notes from Matthew Cook, Los Angeles Percussion Quartet

Stick Recommendation This etude features delicate rhythmic passages as well as moments to demonstrate smooth rolls. To do this, you will need a stick that is heavy enough to control during soft passages, but with the correct length and bead shape to produce smooth rolls. (avoid drum set sticks for these reasons)

CL-2L - Christopher Lamb Model #2 / Laminated Birch

IP-LD - Lalo Davila Model

Be Musical

• Prioritize Beats 1 and 4 throughout, especially during dense passages. • Make sure to use extra weight, and not actual accents unless written.

Rolls • When rolling, emphasize the first two and last note of the roll to give motion • Experiment with roll speed (16 could be too slow, Sextuplets might be too fast) • Consider doing 15 stroke rolls for dotted quarter notes (as in Measure 1 and Measure 4) • Consider doing 11 stroke rolls for quarter notes (as in Measure 2)

Measures 1-4:

Measure 37:

Ornaments Don’t accent ornaments on “weak” beats unless they are specifically marked. This includes flams, rolls, or drags that aren’t accented or on Beat 1 or Beat 4.

Measure 31:

• Notice the important musical ideas are actually the accented rolls, not the ornaments. • The first ornament gets a little more weight than the second, because it falls on a “strong”

beat.

Difficult Passages Make Exercises out of the difficult passages and practice them separately.

• These are pretty challenging: o Measures 22-25 o Measure 28 o Measures 33-35

Actual Passage from Measures 22-25:

Here is what an exercise of Measures 22-25 could look like.

• Start at a slow tempo. • The challenge here is that it is very fast, very soft, and has some quick ornaments

thrown it. • Feel free to use your own sticking, but consider these. • Repeat each cell 4x, 2x, and 1x each

Quick Dynamic Changes To execute Quick Dynamic changes from loud to soft, use a down stroke on the note(s) before the new soft dynamic.

Measure 34: