Tom Twisters

Tom Twisters for drum set is a part of Steve Fitch's Fantastic Hands and Feet series which has been endorsed by Peter Erskine, Colin Bailey, Russ Miller, Frank Briggs, Steve Fidyk, Casey Cangelosi, Ted Atkatz, Michael Rosen, John H. Beck, John Tafoya, Markus Rhoten, Kyle Zyrna, Michael McIntosh, Murray Gusseck, Jim Casella, Florian Alexandru-Zorn and John R. Beck. This book addresses speed, flexibility and efficiency of motion when getting around the drum set. Using 172 exercises which start slowly and gradually increase in speed and only three drums (snare, mounted tom and floor tom), your body will teach itself the most natural way to make the motions necessary to accomplish the task at hand. As you increase the speed of these twisters, especially those with asterisks, which indicate the need for crosses or rapid shifts, your arms and wrists will have to find the smoothest, most natural way to execute the pattern. Mastering these twisters will definitely broaden your comfort zone, which in turn, will allow you to expand your drumming vocabulary. Perhaps best of all, achieving the smoother motions necessary to play these patterns will give you a better touch and sound at the drums. The sticking types that are explored here are single strokes, double strokes, puh-duh-duhs, paradiddles, paradiddle-diddles, flam taps, swiss army triplets and consecutive flams. The Appendix of the book gives you many different foot patterns that you can play with the twisters at challenging tempos to enhance your four limb coordination. This book is designed to encourage your body to find logical solutions to difficult movement puzzles. By practicing out of this book, you will train your body to always look for the most natural way of getting around the kit in any situation. Utilize your body's own intelligence and improve your touch, speed and flexibility in the process!
About the Author: Steve Fitch is the Associate Principal Timpanist, Solo Drum Set Artist and Percussionist with the Phoenix Symphony Orchestra. He studied percussion performance at the Oberlin Conservatory and the Eastman School of Music with Michael Rosen and John Beck, respectively. He is also the Principal Percussionist and Drum Set performer with the Arizona Musicfest festival orchestra. He has toured and recorded in Europe with the North German Radio Orchestra and co-founded the kalamazoo percussion trio in Hannover, Germany. Fitch has taught at the Young Artist Festival in Bayreuth Germany for seven years and is currently on the faculty at Grand Canyon University. Steve is a composer of works for percussion, which are published by Mel Bay, Musikverlag Zimmermann, C. Alan, Amazon and Pocket Publications. His other five books for drum set and snare drum (Fantastic Hands, Fantastic Feet, Flam Pathways, Drum Set Freedom and Advanced Swing Systems) are all available at Amazon.com