Your Greatest "AH-HA" Moment

ZootELoops

Senior Member
No, I'm not talking about the 80's band, but that moment in time where you just "got it" on the kit or in practice.

I am still fairly new to drumming, so I've had quite a few of these in the last 6 months or so (some more minor than others). To get it started, my greatest moment when I first started learning sticking was when the double stroke came effortlessly - without having to consciously make the second stroke - an now being able to utilize that skill in regular playing.

What have you been working hard to accomplish and describe the moment it finally clicked.
 
My biggest one was probably getting independace in my right leg, if you catch my drift.
 
It's where you re-organize a deck of cards.


My biggest moment was when night after night, I saw my favorite drummers playing live in NYC and they were all using basic fundamentals that I thought were supposed to be kinda lame (feathering the bass drum, for example) and it would sound amazing and made everything else they did sound even better. Eric McPherson, Nasheet Waits, Rodney Green, Yoron Israel (who I didn't know until I saw him and then I made sure I knew him after that! Great player!), Clarence Penn - all of 'em: Great articulation and great foundations. That's when I realized I needed to get mine in order.
 
My greatest a-HA moment was when I realised how to derive countless variations from a single rhythm, melody or a sticking. It was a sort of a spontaneous epiphany that was preceded by a lot of lessons, ideas and assignments. At the same time I realised how all rhythms, phrases and stickings are related to one another.
 
I really liked the Take On Me music video.

Oh wait......
 
When i realized that placing the tip of the stick on the head while playing rim-clicks makes a rim click sound like it's supposed to (as opposed to the tip of the stick resting on the opposite side of the rim).
 
This is somewhat hard to explain but...

One day I was messing around on a practice pad doing triple bounces with each hand (rrr lll) and then somehow they accidently got garbled into each other and BAM! SWISS ARMY TRIPLETS MADE EASY! It was very sweet actually. You could say its a cheat method, because now I can play extremly fast s.a.ts effortlessly.
Surprisingly, another ah-ha moment was similar to this. I was messing around with double bounces (rr ll) and somehow I figured out how to do flam taps with double bounces. I used to struggle greatly with flam taps, but now they are so simple to do by using double bounces.
 
One day I was messing around on a practice pad doing triple bounces with each hand (rrr lll) and then somehow they accidently got garbled into each other and BAM! SWISS ARMY TRIPLETS MADE EASY! It was very sweet actually. You could say its a cheat method, because now I can play extremly fast s.a.ts effortlessly.
Surprisingly, another ah-ha moment was similar to this. I was messing around with double bounces (rr ll) and somehow I figured out how to do flam taps with double bounces. I used to struggle greatly with flam taps, but now they are so simple to do by using double bounces.

Wouldn't it go the other way around? Flam tap = lR r rL l lR r rL l = three consecutive strokes with the same hand. Swiss triplet = lR r l lR r l = two consecutive strokes with the same hand.
 
One of my greatest moments was when a 6 year old prodigy turned to me in a lesson and said "So if I play what's written I wont make a mistake?!"

He's now 7 and has already been through Stanton Moore's book as well as several others from basic to intermediate. Imagine a seven year old who gets excited about the books he has in his library that he has yet to begin. I have him working from David Garibaldi books at present and he eats them up.

As for myself? My greatest moment was the first time I played with a band. Until then I'd never imagined I'd play with a band. I just wanted to drum. Playing with a band then became the next logical step.
 
Wouldn't it go the other way around? Flam tap = lR r rL l lR r rL l = three consecutive strokes with the same hand. Swiss triplet = lR r l lR r l = two consecutive strokes with the same hand.

Gosh.
Yeah your right.
I feel stupid now. I got mixed up.
Thanks for the correction.
 
BAM! SWISS ARMY TRIPLETS MADE EASY!

hey dmb, i accidentally stumbled across the s.a.t. while playing to some dave. i had been trying to figure out how carter does his crazy fills and one day i just got it.

my biggest ah ha moment was last summer when i just decided that my right foot (hi hat, im a lefty) was independent. it took me about three days and now i can keep time easily.
 
Biggest ah-ha moment was definitely right foot independance from the left foot. one day i just struggled so hard....gave up and the next day i somewhat easily got through the first syncopation exercise in ted reed's syncopation. I had no idea how it happened, it blew my mind.
 
hey dmb, i accidentally stumbled across the s.a.t. while playing to some dave. i had been trying to figure out how carter does his crazy fills and one day i just got it.QUOTE]

yeah. carter also uses hertas (hybrid rudiment) alot, probably in every song. i think there's some hertas at the begining of drive in drive out when carter does a sweet fill before the verse.
 
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