Preface
After 35 years of working with STICK CONTROL by George Lawrence Stone (that I still love and recommend to any snare drummer as study material), I would like to present a “work book”, that is my personal continuation of Stone´s STICK CONTROL, perhaps a “STICK CONTROL 2.0”.
STICKNESS – FITNESS FOR THE SNARE DRUMMER is divided into four chapters. Each chapter starts with 100 exercises that can be altered or modified to meet your needs and ends with 4 short studies (each in an L- and R- Version). You will find space between the staffs and a few empty pages for your own sticking ideas and variations.
Please consider that STICKNESS is a kind of “snare drum workout”, not in the sense of heavy-weight muscle training but rather like long-term exercising of flexibility and agility. Furthermore it is a book for the advanced snare drummer and I strongly recommend working with Stone´s STICK CONTROL extensively before starting this book.
STICKNESS ends with the so-called MEPHISTO STUDY, that appears in two versions and is also quite challenge even for the advanced snare drummer. Version B (in L- and R- Version) is the “STICKNESS-Practice-Version”, but Version A is suitable for auditions, exams, etc.
This book is both a manual and mental training for the snare drummer. The reason for every line of the exercises starting with “L” instead of “R” is for “emancipation” of the left hand, contrary to nearly all drum books of the past decades. Enjoy the different feeling while practicing and profit from the long-term effect.
Take some time to read “How to practice STICKNESS” thoroughly, so that you will use this book in the most effective way. Finally, don't forget that this book is meant primarily to exercise your technique, so the stickings here are chosen particularly for this objective. Enjoy the feeling of technical agility when leaving this “fitness studio”, but in a musical situation you might want to choose your own individual stickings which should be sensible, sensitive and in good taste.
I would like to express my thanks to EDITION SVITZER for their kind cooperation and for the wonderful layout. My appreciation also goes to Nick Bardach for the English translation and to Thorsten Blumberg for the cover photo.
Wishing all drummers lots of fun and success with STICKNESS, regardless which musical styles they play!
Johannes Steinbauer
Bonn, June 2022
