Crouch down to the floor in a ball and slowly come back up, releasing each muscle as you come up so you are finally up to a standing position. This is a great prep for carrying the marching snare drum as it's very heavy when worn on the body.
Lay the snare drum harness on the ground with the side that will hook onto your shoulders facing the ground. Attach the snare drum to the harness, it should slide or hook onto the snare drum. Pick up the harness with the drum attached and hook the harness onto your shoulders.
With the drum attached to you, pick up your sticks. First, learn some basic rudiments such as the single stroke roll, double stroke roll and paradiddles. (Single stroke roll: Alternating right left right left, Double stroke roll: right right, left, left, Paradiddle: right left right right, left right left left). Make sure your strokes pull the sound out of the drum, meaning you're not drumming right into the head because the strokes will then be dead strokes, making the sound flat. Another exercise includes switching from eighth notes to triplet rhythms at varying speeds (setting your metronome to 80 beats per minute is a good place to begin) as well as alternating flams Flams are accomplished as follows: put your left drum stick just above the drum head so it's not touching and hold up your right stick higher then your left. Then have both sticks come down almost together. It should sound like one, not two separate strokes. Repeat the same process with your right stick just above the drum head and your left stick higher then your right and have both sticks come down almost together.