Battery percussionist have a wide range of things to warm up with. I mean, it's easy to get a fill a battery book, almost everyones done it, or knows types of excerciss are inside... (8's, doubles/triples, rolls/hugga dugga burrs, flam etc. i missing a bunch) There are several variations to cover a wide range of skills needed to play.

But what kinds of things do you place in a pit book? I mean, pit players have just as many needed skills and also need a good extensive warm up... but there seems to be a lot less convention and popularity of this topic. So what kinds of excercices do you guys have/suggest?

I'm not totally clueless, just wondering... i know you should have an 8's excercise. Another covering double stops, and then single alternating strokes. Accents are a good idea... along with a roll excercie. Other then that what else it there? (not entering the realm of 4 mallets, lots there) Just wondering... and how hard should one write it?? I'm dealing with a lot of non percs next year and I, along with one other, are the only ones w/ any pit percussion experience. Thanks for the help <img border="0" title="" alt="[Smile]" src="images/icons/smile.gif" />

Diddles - if you're going to have any parts in the show with diddles, you definitly need a diddles exercise. Even if you aren't going to have diddles it's still a good idea to have an exercise for them just because it's an excellent chops builder. We use two exercises, one called (duh) "diddles" and another called "double beat". The latter is equally effective and much more fun so we usually end up using that one. I can see if I have music for either of those to scan and send to you if you want them.

Note Accuracy - It's a good idea to have an exercise that stresses note accuracy (this can be worked into an exercise that works on another skill as well). Our two that work on this are Krauss scales, which primarily work on 16th notes but also really help note accuaracy on those runs, and also Skillet Beans. This one also works on double stops but is a great exercise for note accuracy as well. It's especially effective if you make it into a little game where whoever can play it the longest without missing a note wins (and everyone else has to take a lap - haha <img border="0" title="" alt="[Razz]" src="images/icons/tongue.gif" /> ) Our pit instructor is a former Crossmen pit member, so hey, if it worked for them.... Skillet Beans is written out in this forum somewhere if you want that one.

On that note, if your exercises are fun, everyone will want to play them more, especially your newbies. They're also more likely to practice at home and during breaks.

Skillet Beans!!!! AAAahhhh!

Everyone does that warmup, it seems =) I first saw it in the Bluecoats pit packet, now we're using it at Conquest, Greater Latrobe HS, and Deer Lakes HS...

I'd agree with everything that's been said. Break your exercises into three parts:

-Warmup/stretching exercises (Legato stroke exercises, Chromatic Double stops, etc.)

-Technique builders (Note accuracy, chops, diddles, 4-mallet double stop, 4-mallet independence, etc.)

-"Problem fixers" - anything that was written to specifically address something in the current show (not necessarily a general technique builder, but maybe something that pertains to the show). For example, we had a lot of close interval (m2, M2, m3) four mallet work in our show last year, so we wrote a warmup that used a lot of these type of intervals

Hope this helps!
Brandon

mabey you could do octaves or thirds for warmups. "Thirds" really help the person learn their scales too. I'm sure you know "thirds" but if not email me and i'll send you instructions or something, it's real easy and it helped my pit in mardching band

*Edited by DLWebmaestro to include double-post*

hey, i made section leader for my drumline too!
some simple exercises are octaves:start on C and go up playing 8 strokes on each note, when you reach the next C have some one count off again but faster, continue going faster then slow down, the point is controll and having everyone sound like one player.
another exercise is "thirds", start on the C scale)or any scale) and with alternate sticking go up three notes then back down to the first note you play, then start on the nexy note and go up three then back to the note and so on
(for example on c scale) c,d,e,c d,c,e,d e,f,g,e do this on all the scales and you can gradually build up strength and play it faster...i've got plenty more exercises if you want some, you can email me or i have aim my sn ise excel151

Maybe I'm just stupid, but the exercise you described doesn't seem to match the notes you listed...


It seems to me like the pattern would end up being:
c,d,e,c,d,e,f,d,e,f,g,e,f,g,a,f,g,a,b,g,a,b,c,a,b,c,d,b,c


I don't know a whole lot about pit but I am trying to put together an exercise packet for next semester, and I would really like to get an idea of how other pits warm-up, that is why I am really interested in exactly what you're playing.


Thanks - Terry

In HS, my line was given a book of all the standerd warm-ups we needed to know to get better. The Pit got one too, its called 'mallets up' by steve yates. There is 2 editions both are really good to have. And then when i got to BK, nevin gave me a 15 page packet of awesome mallet warm=ups, from skips to ripples to 7576(a four mallet excercise based on broken sus. chords, really good chop and mental stamina builder) if i can get a scanner I'll email some of that stuff to you, Jenna.

And Erikk...if your still going to UNC next year, then you'll get planty of stuff to play.

It probably wouldn't hurt to throw in a classical piece into your warmup repitoire. It doesn't have to be the whole piece just some parts that seem hard. The benefits of this is getting your mind stimulated. It has been scientifically proven that when someone plays a piece of classical music, they get smarter and perform better at their tasks. A good piece to play is "Le Nozze Di Figaro" (overture to The Marriage of Figaro) by Mozart. It has a really fast paced opening riff that is really hard to do on mallet percussion instruments. You can find this piece on public domain unless you are in Germany.

I have a better version of octaves if you would like one. There is also green which is a 16th note up and down a scale. There is steps which is like a chromatic exercise with double stops. If you want some of this exercises just tell me via PM and I'll find the website that has them. Also in my drumline website there are some things that we have.

our pit can do green for all the major scales in the circle of fifths, in order, with a short tap-off in between. sounds pretty good when you get it fast and clean. if you want me to write it out, give me a holler.



i tried doing a search for Skillet Beans in the forums, it was a no go. would you mind giving me a link please? thanks.

I wrote it out quite a long time ago, so that post has probably been deleted by now. But you seem like a nice guy, so I'll explain again <img src="/threads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" />

The first part is in 6/8 time and, as you can tell, logically falls into groups of 6 with each beat being an eigth note. The exercise starts on C, going up chromatically through G for the first note and then back to the tonic of C for the other 5. When you get to G, come down chromatically using G as the new tonic. It looks like this with | denoting measure breaks:

C C C C C C | C# C C C C C | D C C C C C | D# C C C C C | E C C C C C | F C C C C C | F# C C C C C | G C C C C C | G G G G G G | F# G G G G G | F G G G G G | E G G G G G | D# G G G G G | D G G G G G | C# G G G G G | C G G G G G |

Repeat the same pattern in fours [4/4 time] (C C C C | C# C C C | etc.), threes [3/8 time] (C C C | C# C C | etc.), and twos [2/8 time] (C C | C# C |etc). The grouping of twos can be repeated twice if you want. There should be no rest between groupings - come out of the sixes right into the fours, into the threes, etc.

<img src="/threads/images/graemlins/70406-tonofbricks.gif" alt="" /> Forgot to mention that it's double-stops in octaves...thanks for pointing that out, John.