by Steve Fidyk

Welcome to the third installment in our series on drumset applications of George Lawrence Stone’s classic book Stick Control. The  variations in the article utilize the “72 Single Beat Combinations” found on pages 5–7.

In this article, we cover 5/4 variations, including swinging the stickings and moving the hands around the kit, phrasing the stickings as 8th-note triplets, mixing combinations of triplets and 16th notes, playing the right-hand stickings over different left-hand ostinatos, and phrasing the stickings as quarter-note triplets with the feet.

Be sure to check out the complete article in the December 2013 issue of Modern Drummer for notation, exercises, and additional insight.

Steve Fidyk has performed with Terell Stafford, Tim Warfield, Dick Oatts, Doc Severinsen, Wayne Bergeron, Phil Wilson, and Maureen McGovern, and he’s a member of the jazz studies faculty at Temple University in Philadelphia. For more info, visit stevefidyk.com. Advertisement