This is a mini course on how to go from knowing very little about pipe band drumming to playing your first Scottish Massed Band scores.
Number of Classes: 12
Objective: To be able to play 3 of the most popular massed band scores by the end.
Perfect for: Mini Monsters
Instrument: Snare
After this course, you'll: Be able to play 3 massed band drum scores
Monster Instructor(s): Michael Eagle and Tam Barnes
Class 1: Singles
Probably the most simplest of rudiments to play with there only being one note on each hand. Watch this class on the left of Michael Eagle going through this from his Scottish Snare Drum Tutor.
Make sure when playing singles that all the notes are being played from the height and try get the sounds of the notes as close as possible (i.e making sure they sound the same).
Assignment: Play singles at 130 BPM on your metronome with two singles per beat on the metronome.
Class 2: Doubles
Also known phonetically as mummy, daddies. This is another simple rudiment to play follow along with the next class in the Scottish Snare Drum Tutor from Michael Eagle.
The same as singles here with making sure that all notes are being played from the same height and making sure they sound as similar as possible. Make sure that they all have the same spacing too and not varying spaces.
Assignment: Play doubles at 130 BPM on your metronome with there being two notes per beat.
Class 3: Paradiddles
Following the same style as doubles this rudiment gets it name from its phonetical sound. This rudiment incorporates the two rudiments we have already been through in this course. The first two notes of the paradiddle is two singles then is followed by a double. This is then repeated on the opposite hand.
When playing these make sure that stick height is the same. Also make sure that you're not playing the double quicker than the two singles which can often be found a common problem.
Assignment: Play paradiddles at 80 BPM with there being two notes per beat.
Class 4: Buzzes
This class is more of a stepping stone on to whats to come. This is because buzzes aren't played on their own all that often. However they are what make up what goes in to a roll which is coming up in the next three classes.
With the buzz you want to make sure that they are getting as consistent a sound as possible. This is because without this you will find that your rolls with get a nice event sound. This should sound like a piece of paper ripping nice and smoothly.
Assignment: Play buzzes up to a high enough speed to get a constant roll then keep it there for 30 seconds (Just count this in your head).
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