Troy-Armored Car, The

This book is not rooted in any specific snare drum tradition or method; it is decades’ worth of musings, writings, meditations, and many hours of practice, and whatever insights contained herein are the fruits of that labor. While it does rely on the language of rudiments, I don’t presume to speak for the rudimental tradition when I draw conclusions or analogies. This material is personal to me, as it represents an amalgamation of the many different paths my career and education have taken; I present this material as a synthesis of ideas, concepts, and experience of over 44 years of drumming.

The intended use is to help percussionists learn some quickly internalized musical ideas to be used when the opportunity arises for practice, if only for a few minutes. The working professional might enjoy those exercises that employ indefinite repeats to serve as warm-ups for sessions and concerts; my younger students have used these exercises to learn important endurance and rebound sensibilities that only occur after a few hundred hours on the drum. My hope is you’ll find the material easily accessible, quick to grasp, and retained easily in your memory to be called upon when those precious minutes of practice are available, but we don’t know exactly “what” to practice.

- T.J. Troy