"4-Way Coordination" (Dahlgren, Fine) tempo marks?

[wrees]

Question about the tempo marks in the "4-Way Coordination" book by Dahlgren and Fine.

Page 3 says: "The metronomic marking is not the maximum speed, but represents the tempo any proficient drummer should be able to attain. With diligent practice these exercises can be performed much faster than marked."

The sets of eighth note exercises on pages 4-6 are marked at a half note = 120, which is equal to a quarter note = 240, which is, of course, really fast. Still, I suppose real speed demons could do this at 240, but then I saw that line 9 on page 6 has three eighth notes in a row on the left foot (and three on the right foot). Are they really suggesting that a merely proficient drummer should be able to play three sequential eighth notes at 240 with their left foot? Or with their right, for that matter? That's sixteenth notes at 120! And the quote above suggests that with practice you should be able to play it even faster!

Or have I somehow misinterpreted or miscalculated the tempos?

Or am I being pessimistic about my ability to get fast? Does anyone here think those tempos are reasonable?

[Hercules]

Hi Wrees,

I read this "evil" book the same way that you did, but didn't want to say anything thinking I was just a slow old drummer.....but I think the reality is that this book was written in a time when the world was much slower, so 120bpm back then was probably equal to about 40bpm in our modern frantic times......I was really hoping that his "typewriter" didn't have a symbol for a whole note and he just used the half-note symbol instead to play with our minds

[Hercules]

Hey Wrees - I forgot to ask - what do you think of the Alesis 8 pad set?

I saw daveybabes pointed to them in another email for about 100quid (english pounds) but when I look them up in Australia they want $370 or so which is a bit too much......

do they have 2 layers?
what's the response like? etc etc


thanks

[wrees]

Hey Wrees - I forgot to ask - what do you think of the Alesis 8 pad set?

I saw daveybabes pointed to them in another email for about 100quid (english pounds) but when I look them up in Australia they want $370 or so which is a bit too much......

do they have 2 layers?
what's the response like? etc etc


thanks

Not sure what you mean by two layers. It's just a controller; it doesn't make any noise by itself. Fine for what it does. Response is tweakable and didn't take very long to get set up the way I like it.

[kevin e]

Yea skills are one thing but myself I've never paid much attention to strictly technical skills. Hey maybe thats why I'm always feeling like I know nothing!