Hands vs Feet | Coordination Workout

 
hands vs feet by ross farley.png
 

Since becoming the proud owner of an Apple Pencil I've taken to sketching out worksheets before I type them up in my music writing software. So this is one of those sketches — forgive the scruffiness!

These exercises are a great coordination workout and should be fairly self-explanatory. Here's a quick explanation of how to practice them...

  1. Pick a foot pattern.

  2. Before you add the hands, play the foot pattern, counting the rhythm (1 + 2 + etc) as you do so. It's important that you understand how the foot pattern sounds before advancing to the next step.

  3. Pick a hand pattern from the stickings section, and decide which rate (8ths: 1 + 2 +, OR 16ths: 1 e + a 2 e + a etc) to play it at. Practice the sticking, counting as you do it.

  4. Now that you can play the hand and foot parts seperately, try putting them together. Counting is important here as it'll help you understand how the patterns intersect. If you get stuck try writing the patterns out, that'll help you visualise what you are playing.

If you manage to blast through the stickings I recommend grabbing a copy of Stick Control and working your way through that with the foot patterns.

If you’d like to be updated about future posts, you can sign up here. If you have any questions or requests, leave a comment below.