Drill: Dongo switch

I'm a big fan of drills that work hand independence and/or dexterity but don't also require a need to learn complicated patterns.

http://youtu.be/zJPW0X6VdMg

Here you'll see two short versions of this drill that I call the "Dongo switch".  It isn't meant to be a sequence you need to memorize, it's just the idea of how to change up a basic pattern.

The idea is simple: keeping the dongo beat the same, you play it with different sticking rather than the usual R, L R, L R, etc...

The one sticking that I recommend trying is doubling one of your hands.  For example R, R L, R R, L R, R L, etc.  In the video, you can see me doing this slowly in the first run then double time in the second.  You don't need to switch back and forth between doubling the right then the left; stay with one sticking for a while and feel free to stop before switching to another sticking.

You don't need a metronome (but it can help), and it's good to start slow!  There's two things you can get out of this drill.  One is improved dexterity, as your hands learn to play things differently, hitting notes in repetition with the same hand.  The other is the ability to feel dongo in a different way than you may be used to.  It's a way to take something you already know and expand your perceptions.

You can do this with a straight beat as well, but I like the groove of dongo.  If you like this drill, let me know!  Also, I'm going to try uploading my videos unlisted to YouTube for a while and see how that goes.