Ostinato drumming
Four way co-ordination
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One limb fine,two ok, three hmmm,four aaarrrrrr!.

So why is four way co-ordination more difficult?.

That's easy it's "four" times as difficult?
Well no actually.
It's more like "twelve" times!

Whilst playing a single limb pattern,we pay full attention to the one limb.
When we add a limb attention is split between two,or is it?
We usually hear the two as one new and separate interaction.
e.g. Swiss triplet.

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Swiss triplet.
This can be broken down in to two components

Right Hand against Left Hand
and Left Hand against Right Hand.




Adding a third limb e.g.
Right Foot multiplies the combinations.

1 RH LH
2 LH RH
3 RF LH
4 RH RF
5 LH RF
6 RF RH
7 RF LH

As you can see it soon gets allot bigger
adding the last limb takes it to the max.

1 RH LH
2 LH RH
3 RF LH
4 LF RF
5 RH RF
6 RH LF
7 LH RF
8 LF LH
9 LH LF
10 RF RH
11 LF RH
12 RF LH

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So it's equally a comprehension problem.
Can you comprehend three patterns at once?four?
The key to four way co-ordination is being able to hear how patterns sound when stacked as one interaction.

To begin to comprehend these patterns they must be broken down in to smaller blocks the mind can understand as one phrase.e.g. playing the Swiss triplet over four in the bar bass drum feels more like two way co-ordination (hands over feet.)rather than 3 way co-ordination.

This is one way,the other way is the more comprehensive involving practicing all the individual patterns against each other as in the list above.

If you can play all the component rhythmic parts against the limb combinations in the list you will have"earned" the ability to perform them all at once.