16th Note Warm-Up

Warming up properly is crucial for any drummer. Doing so will help you play to your fullest potential while making sure you don’t injury yourself. Some drummers tend to play without warming up. Most do so because they don’t know what to warm-up with. If you’re one of those drummers, you came to the right place. In this free drum lesson, Jared Falk teaches a cool 16th note warm-up that makes use of the triple stroke roll. This is a great warm-up since you’ll be practicing hand technique and drum rudiments while getting your hands warm and relaxed.

Most people tend to practice the triple stroke roll as 8th note triplets and 16th note triplets. By practicing the triple stroke roll as 16th notes, you’ll have to get your brain accustomed to playing groups of three notes over a four-note per count subdivision. This is tougher then it sounds. If you haven’t learned how to play the triple stroke roll, you can use this exercise as a good excuse to do so.

Once you’re able to play the triple stroke roll as 16th notes, add the feet into the mix. This is a great way of working on foot independence and speed while you warm-up your hands. To work on bass drum speed, check the free drum lesson “Beginner Single Pedal Bass Drum Speed“. To work on bass drum independence, check the free drum lesson “Bass Drum Independence Etude“. The idea here is for you to combine the foot patterns from those exercises, with the the 16th triple stroke roll warm-up. You can use those foot patterns with your left foot if you want to increase its power, control, and independence as well.

Another cool thing you can do with it is come up with some cool 16th note drum fills. Since a triple stroke roll played as 16th notes revolves every other three measures, you can use each measure as a different one-bar drum fill.