32nd Note Check Patterns

This isn’t written to be an entire useful exercise for the full drumline. The focus is the rhythm and sticking that’s shown in the snare part. Anyone can play it (no matter what drum you’re on. I added the quad, bass, and cymbal parts just to have something interesting to listen to while you’re working on this. Or, you can print or load the sheet music and play with your metronome at any tempo. The score video is at 60 bpm for the benefit of snare drummers working on a specific snare rhythm that is just slightly slower than this.

The point is to keep the right hand as the 16th note base of the 32nd notes. Keeping the right hand going while filling in the left, the left being the note that creates the 32nd note between the 16ths, and keeping it time – that’s the purpose. The video repeats twice. Keep them nice and open. If necessary play the right hand at full height and the left hand at half or quarter the height of the right. This way you’ll still hear your right-hand-16th-note base no matter how the pattern changes.

When you’re feeling advanced you can flip the sticking and play the lefts as rights and the rights as lefts.