Bapawappa is a sequence of variations to a simple doublestroke pattern. Apart from the crushes, the lead hand stays basically constant throughout the exercise, although there may be subtle differences in timing and volume/height/velocity from variation to variation, depending on how you choose to interpret different rudiments. For additional practice, try feeling the doubles as ninelets (see the 4/4 Feel variation on page 2, with instructions on how to convert the tempo for your metronome).
Unified Fields
Unified Fields combines hand-to-hand independence patterns with unison doublestop patterns in a manner that pointedly tests your accent-tap and legato fundamentals.
Pinch Perfect
Pinch Perfect requires the consistent application of a given amount of fulcrum pressure and finger assistance to create strong and consistently-timed doublestrokes. Variations then alter the release of the roll so that the fulcrum pressure and finger assistance demands are not uniform throughout 100% of the exercise.
Durrty Dubbles
Durrty Dubbles works on double beats using variations that allow for one hand to check the timing and sound quality of the other hand. You must variously create doublestop doublestrokes, doublestrokes where the first note of one hand coincides with the second note of the other, and singlestroke fours. The unison doublestrokes facilitate building a completely uniform doublestroke motion between the two hands. The half-unison doublestrokes force you to match sound quality and timing when the doublestop note is achieved through differing amounts of forearm assistance, wrist turn, and fulcrum pressure between the two hands. The single-stroke fours give you an opportunity to hear each note of both hands’ doublestrokes by itself, without being hidden within a doublestop.
Cheese-5 Gritty
Cheese-5 Gritty is an exercise for building precision and consistency with flam-fives... and getting down to the nitty gritty of flam-fives. It focuses on the second diddle releasing on an eighth-note upbeat and works on the slight contrast between grace-note height (tacet height, or "1/2 inch") and tap height (often called "3 inches"). While achieving this contrast is infeasible as tempo increases, it is an important ideal to understand, build on, and strive for.
The analogy I use is that, with doublestrokes, we strive for two completely equal motions at slower tempi, even though that becomes infeasible as tempo increases. And even at the quicker tempi, by thinking about those two equal motions and getting more sound out of the second note, we get more doublestroke quality without actually reaching that ideal of "two equal motions". Flams are the same way. Oftentimes, by simply thinking about that grace-note being "underneath" the taps, we control it just that little bit more to get it low enough and early enough to create a good-sounding flam.
