Fastest Way To Get Faster: Drumeo Course (Review)
The Fastest Way to Get Faster is the newest course offered inside Drumeo Edge. Taught by renowned drummer El Estepario Siberiano, the plan features ten videos designed to get your playing speed up to snuff with easy-to-learn exercises that are played either on practice pad(s) or just on your acoustic drum set.
You’re missing out if you’ve never seen Estepario’s videos on social media. His content is mindblowing — mainly his one-handed drumming videos. For example, watch this video of him playing Avenged Sevenfold’s “Natural Born Killer” with one hand.
Estepario walks us through each exercise, explaining why they’re essential to learn, how to play them, and demonstrating slow, medium, and fast tempos — with musical notation.
So if you want to play like Estepario, you’ll want to take his course. But, even if playing fast isn’t you’re ultimate goal as a drummer, the exercises provided by the video series are must-learns for all drummers.
Lesson One – The Tinder
The first lesson starts with an exercise called The Tinder. It’s a warm-up that works your transitions between singles and doubles — and improves your overall speed. Estepario recommends spending 10-15 minutes each day working on these patterns.
If you work this into your routine practice schedule, you should have no time alternating between single and double strokes. 90% of everything we play on the drum kit is singles and doubles.
Estepario first demonstrates the exercise slowly at 60BPM to help beginner drummers learn the stickings. Drumeo also provides a notation transcription at the bottom of the video with a marker that follows where Estepario is in the exercise.
Drummers who work this exercise daily should notice improvements in overall hand speed within a few weeks.
Lesson Two – The Swiss Cheese
The next lesson is a variation of the Swiss Army Tripet. It’s also similar to Swiss Cheese, but the sticking is a bit different. This lesson teaches drummers how to naturally use the finger technique at higher speeds. Estepario recommends playing this exercise ten minutes daily, but only on the snare drum or practice pad.
Lesson Three – Double Trouble
As the name states, this lesson is all about double strokes. The exercise consists of double strokes alternating between eighth-note triplets and sixteenth-notes — this being the first lesson where Estepario begins instructing us to use both the floor tom and snare drum.
The floor tom has a much different rebound than the snare drum, so it’s an excellent exercise for building up your hand speed on a drum that doesn’t bounce as much. This exercise is challenging at higher speeds, at least for me. Switching between triplets and sixteenths is tough. Be sure to use a metronome throughout the course.
Estepario also explains that many different hand techniques work well and that everyone approaches drumming differently. So whether you use push-pull, finger, all wrist, etc, it’s up to your comfort.
Lesson Four – Clavediddle
Lesson Four combines all the previous lessons into a challenging exercise called the Clavediddle. Again, Estepario emphasizes the importance of playing tight and clean, something we, as drummers, must work at constantly.
The Clavediddle is a 3-2 son clave filled with diddles. The 3-2 Son Clave is one of the most common rhythms in Afro-Cuban music. In the exercise, accents on paradiddle-diddles mark the beat of the clave. This lesson is beneficial; when repeated, the entire sticking swaps from right to left, so you’ll work both left-leading and right-leading hands (something drummers NEED to work more).
Lesson Five – Fingerson
The Fingerson exercise is similar to the last one, utilizing the 3-2 clave once. This pattern focuses on building finger speed between both hands. Again, you’ll play naturally, never forced, while developing proper finger technique.
The exercise has us playing eighth notes on one hand while playing 3-2 clave in the other. At the end of the phrase, we reverse the stickings and repeat. Estepario demonstrates how to hold the stick while learning the finger-playing technique.
Lesson Six – Machine Gun
The Machine Gun lesson demonstrates a quick sticking pattern that flows from the floor tom to the snare using single strokes. While learning to play single strokes on a practice pad is good, it’s essential to learn how to orchestrate them around the drums. You need to know how to apply these concepts to the drum kit — which is precisely why this lesson helps. The exercise is much simpler than the previous two, but it is just as vital to practice and learn.
Lesson Seven – The Classy
Estepario gives us another quick snare rudiment exercise to learn in lesson seven. This lesson covers a sixteenth-note triplet pattern — commonly called the six-stroke roll.
The six-stroke roll is one of the most versatile drum rudiments, ideal for drum fills around the kit. But Estepario isn’t just teaching you how to play the six-stroke roll. His exercise has accent variations that allow you to get more creative with the rudiment — it teaches you how to phrase fluidly without thinking about individual notes and accents.
Lesson Eight – The Six-Stroke Troll
The last video dealt with learning 16th note triplets and ways to vary them — lesson eight deals with orchestrating the six-stroke roll around the drum kit. Estepario explains and demonstrates how to add crash hits and kicks to the rudiment while moving around the drums to create exciting and bombastic drum fills.
Lesson Nine – Chopadiddle
The Chopadiddle is another classic spin on the paradiddle — it’s one of Estepario’s signature licks. You can really show off once you get this lick up to speed. And you’re not limited to playing it as written — just like the six-stroke roll, you can move this around the kit however you like. Relaxation is the key.
Lesson Ten – Diddlechopper
The Diddlechopa exercise is very similar to the Chopadiddle, with just a few extra notes. Instead of employing the regular paradiddle, this pattern uses the inverted paradiddle. Both of these licks are impressive and fun to play. Interchanging them while playing adds an extra layer of uniqueness when chopping out.
Overall Thoughts
El Estepario Siberiano is one hell of a drummer. He’s known worldwide for his incredible speed and chops. Estepario’s videos are mesmerizing and also unbelievable at times (so much so that he’s made videos with a timer on a tablet, demonstrating he’s not speeding the videos up).
His video series, Fastest Way to Get Faster, is an excellent addition to Drumeo’s library of educational courses. These lessons show you the exercises he uses so you can one day play as fast as him.
I can’t recommend this course enough if you want to up your playing speed and develop better hand technique. Drumeo Edge is well worth your money, and there’s no better online drum lesson system out there.
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