Ryan Reed Music
Exercises
Are you looking to change up your front ensemble warm-up routine? Maybe your students are ready for that next level of training, but you're looking for that right exercise to focus on those skills? Are you looking for warm-ups that include all your musicians and not just your mallet players? Let me help you!!! The following exercises have been used with front ensembles of all levels. All exercises come in score form and are written for Mallets, Synth, Drumset and Percussion. Exercises are free to download. Enjoy!
Front Ensemble Exercises
AD (Ascending/Descending) - This two mallet, double stop exercise focuses on balancing the hands musically and physically. Also focuses on shifting hands up and down octaves in quick spaces (included with Green as one exercise) .
Green - Based on the George Hamilton Green exercise, this focuses on balance while spliting the hands. This version is written in eigth notes to be played at higher speeds, but can esily be adapted to a sixteenth note version (included with AD as one exercise).
Isolation - This hand split exercise has one note that is home base. This allows you to focus on sixteenth note timing and articulation. The exercise also focuses on maintaining hand energy as one hand moves up and down the octave while returning to home base.
Chromatic-Up/Major-Down - This hand split exercise focuses on maintaining constitent timing as you play between sixteenth notes and eighth notes. Students need knowledge of chormatic scales.
Triplet Shift - This two mallet exercises focuses on playing triplets in groupings of three notes and four notes. The exercises starts out playing these groupings on one note with accents and then moving the groups around three and four notes. The exercises is in two halves to start off of the right hand and then start off of the left hand.
Doublet - This two mallet exercise focuses on articuling two notes with one mallet both stationary and in motion. Also based in triplets, this exercise will work on triplet timing by playing quarter notes in the hand that is not playing double strokes.
77558 - This is a four mallet block chord exercise. Written in 7/8 and 5/8, this exercise is designed to focuses on playing eighth notes with a great sound while focusing on playing in time. Can easily be adapted to 4/4 and 2/4 for less experienced ensembles, and can add alternating sticking patterns for more experienced ensembles.
Alternating Independence - This four mallet exercises focuses on independent strokes in all four mallets. The exercise also works on alternating strokes by moving between hands.
Lateral Breakdown - This four mallet exercise focuses on breaking down the inside, and outside, lateral motion in one hand. Starts by performing the motion slower in eighth note patterns and then immediately following it up in sixteenth note patterns.