Pro Advice Needed.....concerning RUDIMENTS.........

[drumbumLEE]

i ve always heard my teacher say, practice power strokes around the kit, then i hear jojo mayer in his dvd say the line 'power drills', so i need to know what this means, do they mean we have to hit the surface harder when practicing rudiments or whatever, but i thought we re meant to be working with rebound so hitting hard wud be wrong, yes? currently i work on rudiments using fingers, working with the rebound, so i dont ever hit' hard', whatever hitting too hard is.......thanks, any words or thoughts or ADVICE will be appreciated........

[Dawson49]

i ve always heard my teacher say, practice power strokes around the kit, then i hear jojo mayer in his dvd say the line 'power drills', so i need to know what this means ...

I've been teaching drums for over 25 years and I'm not absolutely certain of what they mean, either. Having said that, why not ask your teacher what he/she means? This isn't rocket science.

Communication ... the last frontier.

[veggo32]

I'm not a pro but I do know that whatever you do drum related be it exercises/power drills/rudiments or just playing around the kit. etc. you should always play relaxed no mattter what. Always be conscious of this threshold and never exceed it. Tensing up is a drummers nemesis, soon as you begin to tense up your drum hits will sound like sh** no matter how expensive your kit is or what heads your using. This is why a professional drummer can make a crappy kit sound great and vice versa.


With respect to Jojo's dvd I have not watched in its entirety yet, But one exercise or warm up that I found valuable and would like to share with those who have not seen the dvd (that is if your referring to secrets of a modern drummer) is one that you can do just about anywhere.
It is the hand clap exercise where he does 100 sets of 8 hand claps in a row, so thats 800 hand claps. The notion behind this warm up/exercise is to not allow your forearms to tense up while you are doing it. If you feel you are tensing up then you would send a signal to your forearms and relax them immediately or slow down a bit. The key is to push yourself to go as fast as you can without tensing up, do it daily and you will see that it will transfer over to your kit playing, guaranteed.

[Wavelength]

I thought we re meant to be working with rebound so hitting hard wud be wrong, yes? currently i work on rudiments using fingers, working with the rebound, so i dont ever hit' hard', whatever hitting too hard is.

You can hit "hard" and still use rebound. In fact, the harder you hit, the more you should let the sticks rebound, and the easier it becomes to let the sticks rebound. Now, when playing "hard", you're actually playing "fast": you're not muscling your way through the stroke, but rather throwing the stick towards the striking surface with a very quick, explosive motion (whether you're using the Moeller whip or the formal wrist stroke).

You should work on taking advantage of the rebound with wrist strokes as well, since the wrist stroke (in the German position) should be your primary technique all around the kit. Don't forget your fingers and arms, either. Good technique is an amalgamation of finger control, wrist control and arm movements.

[MichaelB]

Sorry for the noob question, but what exactly constitutes a hand clasp? i assume you start with your hand in the open position and retratct your fingers towards your palm.?..maybe i should just get the dvd :)

[jasonrhcp]

Wavelength is spot on...hitting hard is sort of random, to me..You can hit 'hard" using rebound..Rebound doesn't mean it has to be a soft stroke..my old teacher taught me to "muscle" everything, and I never got anywhere from a smoothness standpoint.

My technique and rudiment skills improved tremendously when I checked out Pat Petrillo's DVD and Book Hands, Grooves, & Fills. He has lots of great rudiment combination exercises as well as technique builders where he stresses the rebound..

[drumbumLEE]

I'm not a pro but I do know that whatever you do drum related be it exercises/power drills/rudiments or just playing around the kit. etc. you should always play relaxed no mattter what. Always be conscious of this threshold and never exceed it. Tensing up is a drummers nemesis, soon as you begin to tense up your drum hits will sound like sh** no matter how expensive your kit is or what heads your using. This is why a professional drummer can make a crappy kit sound great and vice versa.


With respect to Jojo's dvd I have not watched in its entirety yet, But one exercise or warm up that I found valuable and would like to share with those who have not seen the dvd (that is if your referring to secrets of a modern drummer) is one that you can do just about anywhere.
It is the hand clap exercise where he does 100 sets of 8 hand claps in a row, so thats 800 hand claps. The notion behind this warm up/exercise is to not allow your forearms to tense up while you are doing it. If you feel you are tensing up then you would send a signal to your forearms and relax them immediately or slow down a bit. The key is to push yourself to go as fast as you can without tensing up, do it daily and you will see that it will transfer over to your kit playing, guaranteed.

i agree, the hand clapping exercise is great, and actually one of my teachers told me about the forearm tensing brain message relaxing thing, dont u guys think that some drummers brains do this better than others, therefore they ll be able to play faster, my brain at present is working at a slow pace, i hate my present state of mind.......anyway, just a silly thought.....

[ctdrumer]

I think that if most teachers where being frank they would tell you that any amount of chops will take a considerable amount of time to build. I have seen guys spend all their formative years looking for shortcuts and never develop their hands past the point of a high school kid.

My advice is if you don't know the rudiments learn them very slow and play them about 100 times each every day. Start slow and don't work past your point of having control. If you do you will surely develop bad habits that will follow you for many years to come.

As for technique: learn the motions first and then try to apply some sort of common sense technique. Meaning don't go for the Keith Carlock thing keep what you do feeling good and producing a good sound.

Like football being comprised of good blocking and tackling. Good drumming at it's core is made up of your ability to play good ,taps and accents ,and good double and triple stroke variations. I know that there is a lot more to playing music that just mechanics but if you can't move the sticks properly none of the rest matters.

[GrooveisKing]

Hey guys, great input. I also have posted on my site all of the rudiments with some detailed description of how to properly work on each. Hope this helps!


Drum Rudiments (http://www.grooveisking.com/category/drum-rudiments/)

Ashley

[Pat Petrillo]

Mr. Groove

Ya left off the 11 stroke roll...

[GrooveisKing]

Mr. Groove

Ya left off the 11 stroke roll...


You are right. Wow! Thanks for pointing that out. My IT guy overlooked it I guess, the edit will be done today, Thanks!

Ashley