Gary Chester's The New Breed (1985) is a system, not a book of patterns. The book contains two ingredients: 11 sung melodies (numbered, written out as snare-line rhythms) and 39 reading patterns (kit grooves with progressively syncopated kick and snare). The system is mix-and-match: pick one melody, pick one reading pattern, and play them together. With 11 × 39 = 429 combinations, you have a year of practice material from one book.
What it teaches that no other book teaches as cleanly: the voice and the limbs are different processors. The melody you sing is the part you own without thinking; the reading pattern is the part you have to read off the page. Combining them practices the actual situation a working drummer is in — playing time while reading a chart, or while a bandleader cues new material.
The exercises below take that idea and demonstrate it in miniature. Each shows a SUNG melody (notated above) and a PLAYED kit pattern (notated below). The notation is two-voice; the upper voice is the melody you vocalize, the lower voice is what your hands and feet play.
As in independence-singing: the upper voice is NOT played. It is sung aloud while the limbs play the lower voice. Read each tip carefully — the singing assignment is the lesson content, not just a hint.
Exercises
SUNG (upper): four quarter notes — Chester's Melody 1, the simplest sung pulse. Vocalize "da, da, da, da." PLAYED: the simplest reading pattern — kick on 1 and 3, hi-hat foot on 2 and 4. Add hi-hat 8ths in your hand if you can; if you can't hold all of it yet, drop the hand-hat. The four-foot-pattern alone, with the sung quarter pulse on top, IS the New Breed entry-level exercise.
SUNG (upper): a half note (held through beats 1–2), then a quarter on beat 3, then a quarter on beat 4. Vocalize as "DAaaaa, da, da." PLAYED: a basic backbeat — kick on 1 and 3, snare on 2 and 4 (you'll need to add the snare on 2 and 4 at the kit while singing — note: the snare is the BACKBEAT here, NOT the upper voice). The upper voice is still the SUNG melody; the snare comes from the backbeat in your hand. Tip: think of the upper notation as a vocal score, not a played-snare score.
SUNG (upper): 8th-note melody — sing the pattern "da-da · _ -da · da-_ · da-da", six 8ths with two rests in the middle of each half-bar. PLAYED: a syncopated kick figure — 1, & of 2, 3, & of 4. The voice and the kick are now genuinely independent — they share beat 1 and the &-of-3 and the &-of-4 but otherwise live different lives. This is the crux exercise: hold the sung melody steady while the foot does its own thing.
SUNG (upper): steady quarters again — the easiest possible vocal anchor. PLAYED: a more elaborate foot pattern — kick on 1 and & of 2; hi-hat foot on every offbeat 8th plus beat 2. The feet are now busy in a way most beginners can't read; the sung quarter pulse keeps you oriented. This is the working method: when the limbs get hard, the voice gets simple.