Surface Drifts (first session)
Warmup – DV, SA strokes, canvassing whole body to identify tension in each position before moving on; DV alternating (improvising chords, etc.), playing 16ths, 5s, 16th-note triplets at 90-100bpm, working on easy spine rotation, endurance and volume without tension
Mm. 60-end – worked on measures with DV rolls only, focus on position, spine rotation, volume and endurance at 90-100bpm (similar to exercise above, but with specified notes). With this exercise, I was able to maintain spine rotation and felt my arm was free of tension from fingers all the way back to spine.
Mm. 60-end – worked, as written, at 80bpm. This is going pretty well… I was able to work through this 5 times (with many stops, and lengthening notes quite a bit), without adding tension and without feeling physically fatigued. I did break skin though, so I am now sporting two polka dot bandaids around my middle fingers. 😉 In this section today, I did not have to actively think about the modulation from DV alternating rolls to the DV/other hand playing lines… it happened quite naturally for most occurrences, and it was definitely easier to do smoothly without following the metronome. Overall, I don’t really think this section will feel like it has a steady pulsed anyway, so this is just fine.
5s – worked SI strokes, playing triplets and 16ths with metronome at 70bpm (hands moving in octaves in improvised chromatic lines); played 5s, hands separate at 70bpm; mallet one is still lagging behind the others…
Rip Tide (second session)
Warmup exercise at 150-170bpm, incrementally speeding up
Played through all at 120bpm (mallets only) – identified again that the same measures as before are still the weakest, so that is where I decided to focus.
Mm. 80-118 – hands separate at 150bpm
