The title Snare Book tells its own tale: Jost Nickel's book is exclusively about snare exercises that will improve your hand technique and your general understanding of rhythm at the same time. Additionally, playing these exercises using different subdivisions and time signatures will further strengthen your rhythmic understanding and will make the exercises more interesting and less repetitive. "I usually don't enjoy exercises where I have to play the same thing over and over again." says Jost. "My mind wanders off, and I find it a lot harder to keep practicing because of the lack of variation. As much as I agree that practice is repetition, I also never want to get bored when I practice." Chapter 1 offers a wide range of great warm-up exercises that combine well-known stickings with accentuations, subdivisions, or time signatures that are unusual for these stickings. Additionally, you'll find ostinato exercises to strengthen your independence and interlocking exercises to improve your coordination. "My Snare Book is definitely not your typical rudiments book," adds Jost. "I am confident that the exercises in this book are enjoyable and useful because they offer variations on different levels that will keep you engaged. That makes it easier to play the many repetitions you need to get better." The other chapters take a very systematic approach where Jost takes you step by step through different exercises on double-stroke rolls, flams, multiple strokes, ruffs, inverted double-stroke rolls, paradiddles, and more. Once you have understood the book's conceptual approach, you'll be able to create your own exercises. Simply keep the concepts but change the content, either on your snare drum or on your drum pad. A 12-page insert called "Reading Texts" is also included.
