Re: Moeller mathod is stupid crap.
OK I said it. and I mean it.
Moeller is a bunch of old crap for marching drummners.
If it makes you so fast, then why after all his years of practicing it
can't Dave Weckl play single strokes as fast and strong as Dennis Chambers? Just looking at Dave and Dennis, I would bet Dave can run
further and faster than Dennis, so why can't he move his hands as fast?
The reason is simple, Dave is fighting gravity and Dennis is using it.
Dennis Chambers in response to a question at a clinic about how he developed his speed, said that he practiced single strokes on a pillow, after he was told to do that by Buddy Rich as a youngster.
Follow the Natural Rebound ??? Not on a pillow!
The stick is not a bouncing ball it is a hammer.
Learn to lift the stick with your wrist muscles, if you want more speed.
On planet earth things will only come down as fast as they move up.
That means speed is first, determined by your muscles lifting ability.
Holding the sticks in the air, and playing what are called full strokes
will build no muscles you don't already have.
Watch the Buddy Rich videos , The Jazz Legend, in one of the drum solos Buddy builds a single stroke roll from slow to the speed of light.
You will see no Moeller Method, no full strokes.
The stick is 1 inch from the drum head and is lifted up to
the height he wants for the volume he's playing at and then he lets the stick come back down to the drum head.
HE DOES NOT HOLD THE STICK UP IN THE AIR AND THROW IT DOWN. HE LIFTS IT UP FIRST. THEN IT COMES DOWN
This is the direct opposite of what all the Moeller advocates are claiming you should practice. Full Strokes and Half strokes were invented so that the drumline would have their sticks moving in synchronicity, it had nothing to do with playing the drumset or performing a drum solo.
You are better off watching the greats play and making your own decisions based on what you see and hear than watching all the drum instruction videos telling you that Moeller is some secret technique that will give you incredible chops.
Moeller ignores the natural laws of motion and anatomy, so how can it lead to superior technique?
Here are a few observations (in random order):
It seems as if you disagree with both Gladstone (the stick is not a ball) and Moeller in your post.
"Let the stick come down" is one of the strangest ways of looking at a stroke that I've ever seen. Joe Morello would say that you were nuts and he was no fan of Moeller. As far as the free stroke not working muscles, try Joe's 2-50 exercise and tell me if muscles haven't been worked.
You mention Buddy in your examples. I have studied with Morello and Chapin as well as Famularo. They all say the same thing. Buddy never practiced on pillows. He used to say that because he heard that it might be good but he never did it. Dom also told me about the one "lesson" he ever got from Buddy. Buddy said "I'm going to show you one thing that is the secret of all drumming" He then proceeded to demonstrate the preliminary exercise for the free stroke. In it, Buddy started from the UP position and threw the stick down. The exercise requires that you allow the stick to rebound all the way back while the hand stays down. So, either Joe, Jim and Dom are lying or you're wrong.
"Full stroke" merely refers to the height the stick is thrown from. It is not exclusively a Moeller term.
Also, Dom deliberately extends his fingers in the free stroke exercise so as to train the reflex with as little resistance as possible. He mentions it in his book.
Moeller does not ignore laws of natural motion. Here's why: The formula for kinetic energy is 1/2 mass times the square of the velocity. Velocity is far more important to kinetic energy than mass. (Which is why baseball players use light bats swung at high speed)
A "regular" stroke would achieve a certain impact force from the speed reached by the circular motion (all circular motion is acceleration) of the stick traveling towards the head. The Moeller stroke actually employs another "circle" (The "whipping motion" ) in addition to the basic circular motion of the stick. Thus we have an accelerated acceleration going on and that's why the Moeller motion can achieve greater impact than a Gladstone stroke from the same stroke height. We are accelerating the stick at a rate faster than 1G anyway in both cases so gravity has nothing to do with it.
The stroke could be made in zero G. Gravity does not affect this equation significantly because it's force is negligible compared to the force imparted upon the stick by the stroke. Gravity also does not affect mass.
Your statement "On planet earth, things only come down as fast as they come up" makes no sense. What physical law are you talking about? It sounds like some new age philosophy. Physics is a matter of forces acting upon bodies. If a force is imparted upon a mass, it will react according to Newton's (or Einsteins but that's not the point here) laws. That's all there is.
You argue that the stick must come up before it goes down and that you disagree with Moeller. Yet that is EXACTLY what happens in a Moeller stroke. The stick tip moves up ( the "whip") before the stroke comes down. In a GLADSTONE /FREE stroke the stick moves down first.
I don't know you and you may be an excellent drummer but I must disagree with you even though i also think that the Moeller stroke is hyped a little too much. It's a useful technique but it does not replace basic wrist and finger technique.
I do appreciate your courage in your convictions because I must admit that I also have some disagreements with the greats. For me, it's the concept of "tension-free" playing. If you stop every exercise as soon as you feel tension developing you will never learn how to manage it and your chops will probably never get serious. Using Buddy again as an example: No one can tell me that he played tension-free. He mastered tension in all it's forms. He would break his ass to get those notes out sometimes. Like a martial artist with a one-inch punch, he learned how to store tension and release it at will. THAT is where it's at.