Spent some time at the rehearsal space last night getting warmed up for a show tonight. Finally got around to practicing a thing I stumbled across online. You play steady 16th notes on the hi-hat with the snare on two and four. With your kick you cycle through placing a kick in each possible slot. It was interesting seeing which patterns were problematic. For me “-ooo” was really rough on the kick drum.

I am really starting to respect exercises where you need to cycle a kick or snare through all the possible notes in a measure. When I was studying jazz comping, there is a similar exercise. I go back to it almost every day when I am practicing on my legs or desk.

These kinds of exercises are wonderful because they expose the small wrinkles and help you iron them out in your playing. Pretty much instant results in your normal playing when you work on these cycles.

Recommend

Play each one slowly for a while and relax. Let the muscles get used to doing each one. 

Positions

Key: o = hit drum, - = rest

o---
-o--
--o-
---o
oo--
-oo-
--oo
o--o
o-o-
-o-o
ooo-
-ooo
oooo