Music Teacher's Helper Blog

Despite being written in 1935, George Lawrence Stone’s Stick Control is still one of the most popular method books for percussionists.  Every teacher I ever studied with used the book in some capacity, and I now use the book with most of my students.  The exercises in Stick Control are relatively simple and straightforward, so they can get rather tedious.  Luckily, drummers have developed many creative variations for these exercises in the last 70-plus years.  Here are seven ways I teach my students to play the book’s exercises.

On the Practice Pad

1. Deliberately
When students begin working with Stick Control, I recommend they practice the exercises in a distraction free setting.  I demonstrate this by playing through an exercise 20 times at a moderate pace (with a metronome).  I explain how I keep my eyes focused on my hands, ensuring that I’m using good technique.  I start all my students with this practice method so that they develop good fundamentals.

2. Mindlessly
Once a student has a firm grip on technique, I give them the green light to practice these exercises “mindlessly.”  I advise them to turn the metronome on low (volume) and burn through as many exercises as they can while watching television, or even better, a movie (movies are longer).  After all, the goal of Stick Control is muscle development, so I equate this mindless practice with running on a treadmill.

3. Adding Accents
George Lawrence Stone did not write one accent in the entirety of Stick Control.  That leaves room for both the student and myself to add our own accents.  I start by penciling in accents above the first note of each exercise.  Later, I add arbitrary accents to the exercises and encourage students to come up with their own accent patterns.

On the Drum Set

4. With the Feet
Any exercise that can be played with the hands can also be played with the feet.  I emphasize this more with students studying double bass technique, but every student should at least attempt these exercises with their feet, even if they only have a single bass drum pedal and a hi hat.  In fact, most of my students find it more difficult to play these exercises without a double bass drum pedal.

5. With the Hands, Adding a Foot Ostinato
Drum set students can practice more efficiently by combining their hands and feet into the same exercises.  I have students start out by playing the exercises on the snare drum with their hands and quarter notes with their feet.  As students progress, I add more complex foot ostinatos, such as a samba pattern.

6. With the Feet, Adding a Backbeat
This is the reverse of the previous method.  I have my students play the exercises on two pedals with their feet and add an eighth note backbeat groove with their hands.  This tends to get fairly complex, especially when the exercises combine straight eighth notes and triplets.  I only recommend this practice method to my more advanced students.

7. Adding Orchestration
There are literally infinite ways to orchestrate each exercise around the drum set.  I start by having my students assign their right hand to one drum and their left hand to another (most pick the floor tom for R and the snare for L, simply out of convenience).  After the student is comfortable hearing the exercise on multiple surfaces, I have them expand their orchestrations to include all drums, cymbals, and pedals.  For students who have a hard time visualizing this, I have them write out their orchestrations on blank staff paper ahead of time.  Finally, I have the students alternate between playing their orchestrations and bars of time.  This way, the students get to use their creations as fills.

Your Turn

What are some other ways you use Stick Control with your students?  Leave your answers in the comments below.