Latest AH HA moment...

M

Mike_In_KC

Guest
I just wanted to share another growth moment from month 8 as I continue the journey ...

Among my many weaknesses drumming I have had problems with basic flams, drags and double stroke rolls. I work on these daily and recently had one of those moments. While working on flam taps I all of a sudden was able to, for lack of a better term, "snap off" my flams. I found a sweet spot in my grip or something but instead of the "FLAM-uh" sound my flams used to produce I now get a nice tight flam sound - and I really can feel my wrists and hands snapping the stroke. I quickly replicated the newly found sweet spot to my left hand and was able to flam equally well on that side. After flams I happened to be working on drags - the sweet spot I found doing flams served me well with drags to - instead of the loose drags I played earlier I was now again, snapping off tight drags. After the drag exercise I realized I was on to something (duh?) and checked to see if my newly found sweet spot worked for doubles and of course it did. I don't wanna share exact numbers but I increased my speed by almost 40%! Good stuff -

MM
 
That's awesome! I love those Ah HA moments. A recent one for me was gripping a drum key in my left hand tightly in the web between my pointer and middle fingers along with my stick while warming up. It's helping me work on a weak fulcrum grip between the pointer finger and thumb. This may not work for everyone though and I do not use it for more than 15-20 minutes during warm up.
 
I've spoken to many musicians about this over the years and there seems to be a general consensus that we all reach brick walls where we don't seem to make much progress or are struggling with something and then one day you wake up and....Ah Ha!

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I think these kind of things are always hard to explain and teach too. All of a suddent something just feels different in your hands and its almost impossible to describe the feeling
 
If I've understood correctly what you're describing, you will probably find that this is a game-changing discovery and, as DK says, one of those things that can't be taught but has to be learned.

(Thank you for the Alan Partridge, DK!)
 
I will upload some examples of my ah ha flams and drags this evening -
 
My fav ah-ha moment I've had was when I realized my left hand was finally strong enough to give really solid blast beats. I'd even go so far as to say stronger sounding/feeling than my right. Thanks Derek Roddy for his practice routines!

x CC x
 
Playing fills and mini-solo's over the bar line. It doesn't happen with every song, depends on the groove, but on certain original songs my band does, I'm suddenly able to think in 2, 3 measure (and sometimes more) phrases. I don't lose the "1", and I don't even consciously think about trying it. It just happens. Pretty cool all the sudden.
 
Magenta said:
If I've understood correctly what you're describing, you will probably find that this is a game-changing discovery and, as DK says, one of those things that can't be taught but has to be learned.

(Thank you for the Alan Partridge, DK!)
Click to expand...

Got to love a bit of Partridge! :)
 
Polska said:
Playing fills and mini-solo's over the bar line. It doesn't happen with every song, depends on the groove, but on certain original songs my band does, I'm suddenly able to think in 2, 3 measure (and sometimes more) phrases. I don't lose the "1", and I don't even consciously think about trying it. It just happens. Pretty cool all the sudden.
Click to expand...

That is solid. I am still learning the "over the bar" skill with grooves that have the dotted eighth feel, if that makes sense - at the beginning of the second measure starting on the E of one instead of on the one. I still sometimes get lost and can't remember how many measures I have played over the bar and have to kind of feel my way back to one :)

The other night I was working on over the bar stuff and kind of got stuck in an infinity loop (IT nerd speak). I heard a loud thumping from above - the cue from my wife or daughter to stop. So I stopped playing and yelled up at them "What's up?" to which my daughter yelled "PLAY THE REST OF THE BEAT!" So in that case I for sure had the over the bar feel working :)

MM
 
This may have to do with the two motor systems in the brain.

The OP may be describing the moment when things switch from effortful, conscious cortical processing (in the pyramidal motor system) to less conscious subcortical processing (in the basal ganglia/extra-pyramidal system). Like when you initially learn to tie a necktie each step must be effortfully done, whereas as a adult it is actually harder when you think about, as in teaching a child to tie.

Once motor sequences are encoded subcortically (after much practice), we have more conscious horsepower available to pay attention to dynamics, groove, etc. This also suggests that when teachers tell you to end with a well done rudiment (perhaps at a lower speed) it is probably good advice in terms of how the nervous system remembers motor habits.

Same with fills---once learned well the sequence runs off pretty automatically without much attention/monitoring. Thus "muscle memory" is really basal ganglia memory.
 
RIneuron said:
This may have to do with the two motor systems in the brain.

The OP may be describing the moment when things switch from effortful, conscious cortical processing (in the pyramidal motor system) to less conscious subcortical processing (in the basal ganglia/extra-pyramidal system). Like when you initially learn to tie a necktie each step must be effortfully done, whereas as a adult it is actually harder when you think about, as in teaching a child to tie.

Once motor sequences are encoded subcortically (after much practice), we have more conscious horsepower available to pay attention to dynamics, groove, etc. This also suggests that when teachers tell you to end with a well done rudiment (perhaps at a lower speed) it is probably good advice in terms of how the nervous system remembers motor habits.

Same with fills---once learned well the sequence runs off pretty automatically without much attention/monitoring. Thus "muscle memory" is really basal ganglia memory.
Click to expand...

Exactly! Wait - what now? JK Well explained and super cool stuff. I love my brain.
 
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