Session role: this chapter has two roles depending on where you are in the programme.
This chapter is the permanent warm-up. It is never fully graduated out of—the exercises just get faster and stay in rotation for the life of the manual. See approach.md §5, Stage 1.
The 13 exercises are not a checklist. You do not work through all of them every session; you rotate. The core list below is where most of your time goes. The rotation list adds variety and density on days when you want a fuller warm-up. The reference exercises (Ex. 1.2–1.9) are all 8th-note patterns: Ex. 1.2–1.3 vary how the 8ths are grouped between the feet (no accents), and Ex. 1.4–1.9 layer accents on 8ths in different placements. R&L includes them as raw material; treat them as discretionary. Play them when they look interesting, skip them when they do not.
The book itself notes (R&L p. 6) that Ex. 1.8–1.12 are single-stroke rolls between the feet, and calls single-stroke rolls “the foundation of double bass drumming”. The curated subset below reflects that guidance.
If this is your first session and R&L Ch. 1 is your only active chapter, do exactly the following. This concrete walkthrough is what the session runbook in approach.md §7 looks like when applied to this chapter for the first time; on later sessions the same shape applies with the bpm coming from your tracking document rather than from this sheet.
pass if the exercise held cleanly (feet even, click still audible, no dropped notes) for at least one continuous minute at 60 bpm; near if it was mostly clean but drifted or dragged; fail if you never managed a clean minute.1.1 60 bpm 10 min <verdict> <note>, where the note starts with a short tag and may be followed by short free-form prose when a single word is not enough. Tag-only example: 1.1 60 bpm 10 min pass even. Tag plus prose example: 1.1 60 bpm 10 min pass even, click clear throughout.current bpm and last pass bpm always coincide; set both to the bpm you just played (60), and set last pass date to today. Two consecutive pass sessions at the same bpm advance both columns by +4 to the next rung.That is a complete first session. You have not touched every exercise in this chapter and you should not try to. Ten minutes of Ex. 1.1 at 60 bpm with a metronome and a verdict logged is more useful than half an hour of unfocused variety.
On your second session, look up the bpm and verdict from session one. The advancement rule (approach.md §4) is two consecutive pass sessions at the same bpm before you raise the metronome—one pass is not enough. So:
pass, hold 60 bpm and run the same loop. A second pass at 60 earns the raise: on session three you set the metronome to 64 bpm (+4 bpm for Ch. 1).near, hold 60 bpm and run the loop again. A near resets the two-pass count—you always need two pass sessions in a row, uninterrupted.fail, drop to 56 bpm and rebuild from there.Worked example over the first six sessions, assuming it goes well: session 1 pass at 60, session 2 pass at 60, session 3 raise to 64 and pass, session 4 pass at 64, session 5 raise to 68 and pass, session 6 pass at 68. Two passing sessions per bpm before every advancement. That is the mechanical loop for the rest of the manual, applied to this chapter.
Once you have logged your first advancement on Ex. 1.1—two consecutive pass sessions at the same bpm followed by a raise to the next increment, i.e. session three at the earliest—expand the warm-up from Ex. 1.1 alone to the full Core block. See “Your third session” below for the concrete walkthrough. From that session onwards, Ex. 1.1, Ex. 1.10 and Ex. 1.11 are your daily minimum; dip into Rotation (Ex. 1.12 and Ex. 1.13) on longer days; treat Reference (Ex. 1.2–1.9) as discretionary 8th-note studies (Ex. 1.2–1.3 foot-grouping, Ex. 1.4–1.9 accent variations).
By session three, if sessions one and two both logged pass at 60 bpm on Ex. 1.1, you have earned two things at once: an advancement on Ex. 1.1 (to 64 bpm, +4 bpm per approach.md §4), and the right to expand the warm-up from “just Ex. 1.1” to the full Core block below.
Concretely:
1.1 64 bpm 2 min <verdict> <note>.1.10 60 bpm 3 min <verdict> <note>.1.11 60 bpm 3 min <verdict> <note>.current bpm and last pass bpm coincide on each exercise; two consecutive pass sessions at the same bpm advance both by +4.That is a complete third session. Total playing time is about 8 minutes—less than session one’s 10 minutes on Ex. 1.1 alone, but spread across three exercises. If you have more session time available, spend the extra minutes on whichever of the three felt weakest (usually Ex. 1.10 or Ex. 1.11 for the first several sessions, since they are new). If you have less time, shrink each per-exercise time proportionally, but still play all three.
From session four onwards, the shape of every session is the same as session three: for each Core exercise, look up bpm, set the metronome, set the timer for the per-exercise time in the Core table, play, log. The two-consecutive-passes advancement rule from approach.md §4 applies to each exercise independently—Ex. 1.1, Ex. 1.10 and Ex. 1.11 will typically be at different bpms over time, and each advances on its own two-pass count.
Once you are past your first session, the Core is your daily minimum for this chapter. Do all three exercises, in the order below, in a single warm-up block. Concretely: for each row in the table, look up your current bpm in the tracking document (or use the starting bpm for the first time), set the metronome, set a timer for the per-exercise time given below, play unbroken until the timer stops, log a verdict per the clean-pass rule (approach.md §4), then move on to the next exercise.
| Ex. | Pattern | Start | Unlock | Target | Per-exercise time |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1.1 | Bar 1: quarter notes (strong foot). Bar 2: 8ths on the offbeats (weak foot). See notes below. | 60 bpm | 90 bpm | 120 bpm | ~2 min |
| 1.10 | 16th-note single-stroke roll between feet | 60 bpm | 90 bpm | 120 bpm | ~3 min |
| 1.11 | 8th-note-triplet single-stroke roll between feet | 60 bpm | 90 bpm | 120 bpm | ~3 min |
That is roughly an 8-minute warm-up block, which matches the ~7–8 min the session template (approach.md §6) allocates in a 30-min session. If you have less warm-up time than that, shrink the per-exercise times proportionally—but still do all three. If you have more, spend the extra time on whichever of the three felt weakest.
Why these three? Ex. 1.1 isolates the weak foot, which is the chapter’s stated purpose. Ex. 1.10 (16ths between the feet) and Ex. 1.11 (8th-note triplets between the feet) are the two subdivisions you will meet everywhere in Stages 2 and 3—Stage 2 is entirely 16ths, Stage 3 opens with 8th-note triplets—so warming up on them daily builds the foot subdivision you are about to apply against the hands. Ex. 1.12 (sextuplets) and Ex. 1.13 (32nds) map onto later or discretionary chapters (approach.md §5, Stages 3 and 4) and go in Rotation for that reason.
Note on Ex. 1.1 (edition discrepancy). The Revised Edition of R&L prints bar 2 of Ex. 1.1 on the same bass drum as bar 1—both on BD I (strong foot). This appears to be a printing error. The Original Edition places bar 2 on BD II (weak foot), which fits the chapter’s stated purpose (“isolate and help develop your weak foot”) and reads as a strong-foot / weak-foot alternation across the two bars. Play it as the Original Edition notates: bar 1 strong foot, bar 2 weak foot. See approach.md §3.2 for the general edition policy and the full list of confirmed differences between the two editions.
Once the Core is stable (say, two weeks of consistent pass verdicts on Ex. 1.1, Ex. 1.10 and Ex. 1.11), you can start adding a Rotation exercise. Add one of the two below on a given session; do not add both on the same day. Concretely: pick one row per session, and treat it as the fourth exercise in the warm-up block—look up bpm, set metronome, set timer for ~2 min, play, log. Alternate between Ex. 1.12 and Ex. 1.13 across sessions so both get worked over time.
| Ex. | Pattern | Start | Target |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1.12 | Sextuplet single-stroke roll between feet | 50 bpm | 100 bpm |
| 1.13 | 32nd-note single-stroke roll between feet | 40 bpm | 60 bpm |
If a Rotation exercise is bumping the warm-up block past ~10 minutes and eating into your focus block, drop it for that session. The Core comes first.
Cadence. Once you are using Rotation at all, aim for each of Ex. 1.12 and Ex. 1.13 to get worked once a week or so when time allows—about two Rotation sessions per practice week at the ~5-days-per-week baseline. That is a target, not a rule: skip Rotation entirely on short days, and a missed week is not a debt. The advancement rule (approach.md §4) still applies—two consecutive pass sessions at the same bpm earn the +4 bpm raise—but the two sessions accrue across weeks rather than back-to-back days. Per approach.md §4 that is if anything a stronger confirmation than a same-week repeat, since the tempo has to hold after real time away from the exercise.
After Stage 2 unlocks. Rotation’s natural cadence drops once Stage 2 opens and Ch. 1 becomes the ~7–8 min warm-up block of a full three-block session (approach.md §6) rather than the whole session. There is rarely room for a fourth exercise inside a short warm-up. It is fine for Rotation to appear less often—or not at all—once later chapters occupy the focus and application blocks; the pre-Stage-2 window, when Ch. 1 is the whole session, is where most of your Rotation exposure will naturally happen.
Ex. 1.2–1.9 are all 8th-note patterns. Ex. 1.2–1.3 vary how the 8ths are grouped between the feet (four-and-four, then eight-and-eight) with no accents. Ex. 1.4–1.9 layer accents on 8ths in different placements—some over regular groupings between the feet, some over single-stroke alternation between the feet (Ex. 1.8–1.9, matching the book’s own note that Ex. 1.8–1.12 are single-stroke rolls). Useful for foot-grouping and accent control; not required for the strength-and-accuracy path. Dip in when you want variety or when a specific pattern shows up in a beat you are working elsewhere. If you never play them, that is fine.
Stage 2 (R&L Ch. 2, doubled 16ths between the feet—see approach.md §5) unlocks when Ex. 1.1, Ex. 1.10 and Ex. 1.11 all reach their unlock bpm of 90 bpm—two consecutive pass sessions at 90 bpm on each of the three exercises, per the advancement rule in approach.md §4. The +4 bpm ladder from 60 lands on 60, 64, 68, 72, 76, 80, 84, 88, 92—it skips 90 entirely; per approach.md §4, 92 counts as clearing the 90 bpm unlock, and you should not shrink the last increment to land on 90 exactly. All three, not the fastest one. In practice Ex. 1.10 (16ths between the feet) is usually the slowest to reach 90 bpm, because it is the same doubled-16th coordination Ch. 2 is about to train against the hands—which is exactly why it gates the transition.
Two things this rule is not:
When Ex. 1.1, Ex. 1.10 and Ex. 1.11 all sit at 90 bpm or above, open chapter-02.md and add Ch. 2 to your active list per the tracking-document header format (approach.md §8). Session shape changes from “Ch. 1 is the whole session” (see “Session role” near the top of this sheet) to the full three-block template (approach.md §6): Ch. 1 warm-up, Ch. 2 focus, Ch. 2 application, cool-down.
Log entries for this chapter use the exercise number prefixed by 1.—for example 1.10 84 bpm 3 min pass even, or with a short trailing comment: 1.10 84 bpm 3 min pass even, weak foot caught up by minute 2. See approach.md §8 for the full tag-plus-optional-prose convention and both entry shapes (tabular and compact-line). Log only what you actually practised; there is no obligation to touch every exercise in every session.