Transitions

RussÕ newest book from Warner Brothers is entitled "Transitions". This book is the most complete independence learning system in the world. Every step from basic hand to hand playing (two-limb) through advanced four-limb playing is covered. Based off of the "Ghosting System" in the "Drum Set Crash Course" book, this book uses system ostinatos and reading figures with various limbs. The incredible difference between this book and all other independence systems, is that every single exercise has a full live band play along track. All of the levels of physical development are accomplished while playing music! This starts you developing your musical skills in a time of study that normally does not relate to

practical playing. This book is the "Prequel" to the Drum Set Crash Course book a great component to the Crash Course Learning series.

Foreword
In my first book "The Drum Set Crash Course", I focused on various attributes that are needed for a drummer to play several different music styles convincingly. When I thought further about the space restrictions of one book, I couldnÕt effectively communicate the important role that independence plays in mastering many styles. The system that I devised for the "Funk" chapter in the Crash Course book (titled "The Ghosting System"), was an independence learning method that may be used for several styles. I was approached by several percussion teachers about how to help a student make the transition from a drum pad or snare drum (2-limb independence), to full drum kit facility (4-limb independence) required for much of todayÕs drum set playing. Thus "Transitions" was born! The most important thing that I always try to stress while doing clinics and teaching is the experiences of playing music. It was the fundamental undertone of the Crash Course book and of my second book "The Commandments of R&B Drumming" with my friend Zoro. I wanted to make a total play-along system for working on all of these boring independence exercises! Developing this facility on the drum set is very time consuming and can be quite frustrating. This system was developed so that you will gain physical ability on the instrument while learning to listen and react within a musical context. The idea of these play-alongs are to hear where and how the abilities gained by these exercises will be used from a practical standpoint. When I was in a practice-intensive time in my career, I was always wondering "when am I going to use this stuff"? I didnÕt find out until years later when someone asked me to play certain figures, where the attributes of all the hard work would be effective. The systems in this book, along with the recorded tracks, are assembled from a musical perspective. All of the combinations will be used in a practical musical genre.

I highly recommend going through this text with a guidance of a private instructor. He/She will be able to help you focus on certain characters of each system that are impossible to put down on paper. This is where the recorded examples of exercises come into play. These tracks were recorded to give you sonic examples of these systems and play-alongÕs. This is for you to hear musical colors that can and should be apart of these exercises. Do to time restrictions on the CD, we could only put one tempo of each play-along on the accompanying disc. These tempos were chosen with a few factors in mind:

1.) The general tempo range of the specific play-along style. Obviously, every style of music has many tempos but for a general rule, most styles stay within certain B.P.M. ranges.

2.) Independence exercises are usually conquered in a few phases. In the beginning of working on the exercise, you are usually just trying to get your limbs to move opposite of each other. There is no point in having a play-alongÕs tempo be so slow that it would be able to be utilized it at this level. The second phase of conquering a system is the tempo range I chose for the play-along. I feel that at these "medium" tempos are the point at which the articulations and character are developed.
This is were playing music with the patterns are the most important. I always say in my clinics, "learning to play something fast is not difficult but learning to play something well is very difficult". Many people think that playing a figure fast is the key to conquering them. This is very untrue, you can play anything quicker if you have the correct movements under your belt. These correct movements are easily done at quicker tempos. But, if you try to speed up incorrect movements they will get increasing harder. This is why I didnÕt put extremely up tempo versions of each play-along on the disc.

3.) Play-alongs are meant to be used in several different ways. You should go through the entire book as written. Use the play-alongs for lining up the various figures in the exercises. After you have gone through each section, you can then go back through the play-alongs using the tracks as set-up exercises. Play fills leading to each one of the figures. This method gets you used to feeling where these various figures land in the measures. The object of this is not to play through the tracks at quick tempos or with a nonchalant attitude towards them but to really focus on how the figures fall in time. This internal sense of rhythmic figures helps you tremendously in sight-reading. When you are reading on the fly you donÕt have time to analyze where figures fall. If you can be familiar with several different rhythmic combinations in the measures, you will have more of a natural feel of how to play and lay around all these different rhythms.

I realize that there is so much information that gets thrown at you in a method book. I really recommend taking your time and donÕt get frustrated. Learning independence is an extremely physical task. You have to let your various limbs get used to making movements it has never made before. This takes some time to do. EverybodyÕs bodies are different, so movements are easier for some than others. This book is meant as a system that should take a long period of time to master. In an age where we are used to getting whatever we want extremely quickly, there are still things that are learned and accomplished with time and patience! This book is a "Prequel" to "The Drum Set Crash Course" book that I released previously. This book gives you the physical abilities to attack the conceptual attributes of the Crash Course. One of the keys to both of these books is to read through all of the text in each and really take time to think about what is being said in the exercise text and historical sections of the Crash Course book. Some things are very important and are not easily written down. I highly recommend checking out the "Drum Set Crash Course" video. This tool gives you the visual and audio demonstrations that can help you master these exercises and music styles.

Copyright 2000 Russ Miller. All rights reserved.

Comments? Feedback? Get in touch with Russ at:
rmisticks@russmiller.com