Repertoire
Show
The show this year is called Fire Garden Suite, composed by Steve Vai. Our rendition was arranged by Steve Ballard, and consists of three movements: Bangkok/Bullwhip, Angel Food, and Taurus Bulba. The show is centered around fire and good, old-fashioned heavy rock.
Exercises
8 on a hand
A classic, simple exercise, designed mainly to warm up the hands. 32 counts long, each hand plays eight eighth notes. Each section has variations on this core concept, and the pit change scales on each rep, following the circle of fifths.
74-8
Although the reasoning behind the name has been lost in the depths of time, 74-8 is a pit exercise written in three parts, emphasizing offbeats and doublestops.
Accent-tap
This exercise is designed to train the player on the differences between accents and taps, and to increase accuracy over irregular intervals.
Double beat
Consisting of constant double-stops, this exercise is a highly painful chop-builder that favors the battery.
Double beats
Created by Kevin Dufford, this exercise aids in counting 4-on-3 polyrhythms, and double strokes with each hand.
Green drills
A pit exercise devised by George Hamilton Green that focuses on scalar runs. The players play sixteenth notes, once up five steps, then down, then back up, then down, then up, then down, then all the way up to the eighth step, then halfway down as before, then all the way down to the tonic.