Warm-ups and Killer exercises

When not developing software I like to play the drums. Unfortunately I must admit that flailing away at the kit to some random Spotify playlist is a lot more fun than practicing hand technique. And that shows...

However, the latest months my practice pad has seen the daylight again (figuratively speaking; a Swedish December doesn't offer much sun). The reasons for this are George Lawrence Stone, Sonny Igoe and Tommy Igoe - or more precisely the killers and great hands warm-up.

Drummers discussing drummers and drumming (nowadays most often in Internet forums) keeps recommending the Stone Killers and Igoe's Great Hands or Lifetime Warm-up, and that ten minutes a day can make a huge difference. Well, I can afford ten minutes a day, I thought. And it made an immediate difference. Not that my hands are great (yet), but I actually started to enjoy practicing rudiments again!

Now, as a developer I couldn't help but try to improve on these already great concepts. First and foremost, such sequences should always be available, in the pocket. Second, though well thought out, I found the number of repetitions and ordering non-intuitive sometimes.

So, the new version of the Rude Practice Pad contains a generic sequence feature, initially used for three different Stone Killer exercises, a Six Stroke Roll Pyramid and Longlife Warm-ups in two levels of difficulty.

And there are more sequences to come. I'll implement them if I can just leave my practice pad!