Todd Sucherman here!

I was at the Weymouth clinic as well (10/18). Outstanding clinic! I really enjoyed it. Todd has a great sense of humor, he is a real cool guy. His performace was excellent.

Great playing Todd! Thanks for a great experience. Oh, I grabbed a DVD too, I hope it helps you get a ticket home. ;)

Matt
 
Hey Matt,

Thanks a lot for making it out to the clinic and for letting me know you enjoyed it! And I made it home too…

Thanks, and cheers from Michigan-
Todd
 
Hey Todd! Love your drumming, you are awesome.

I have a question for you. What is the best thing that has helped you in some way to improve your drumming and made you sound better?

If it's a certain exercise, a book or a realisation of some sort maybe?

I'm talking drum playing/technique and not things like how to get more gigs or stuff like that.

Thanks :)
 
Hey E. D.,

Thanks for the kind words. To answer your question, it's a matter of experience and playing music with others…a lot. Record your practice session and your gigs. Listen to them in the cold hard light of day objectively and make adjustments when things aren't working or feeling right. That's the quickest way to get in touch with what you sound like on the instrument.

Cheers,
Todd
 
Hey E. D.,

Record your practice session and your gigs. Listen to them in the cold hard light of day objectively and make adjustments when things aren't working or feeling right. That's the quickest way to get in touch with what you sound like on the instrument.

Cheers,
Todd

Thanks, I will start recording my self more often as this is something I have heard a lot from drummers. It's not fun to do and that's probably the reason why I haven't done it more often :p
 
Hey folks,

I'm doing four clinics in Ohio this December. If anyone lives in these places, come out and say hello!

Cheers from Las Vegas,
Todd

Dec 1st Hubbard Music (Hubbard OH) Dec 2nd Zampino's (North Canton) Dec 3rd Stebal Drums (Willowick) Dec 4 Columbus Pro (Columbus)
 
Hi Todd. I really dig your playing and both of your videos. Very informative and well produced. Looking forward to attending the clinic in Columbus in december!

Cheers!
Doug
 
Thanks again for coming to Ohio Todd. I was at the last clinic in columbus and it was great to finally meet you. The clinic was very informative and inspiring. Your playing was phoenominal. I had the opportunity to sit behind the kit you used after the clinic and I'm wondering if you always set you kit up like that? The bass drum seemed really far away and at an interesting angle. Wondering how you get so much power from your kick like that. I like how close the 12" tom was. The whole kit sounded great!

Cheers!
Doug
 
Mukund--

I would love to one day…


Doug,

Thanks for making it out to the clinic and glad you enjoyed it. Yes, that is my regular "one bass drum" set up. The bass drum doesn't seem to have an angle on it from where I sit. It's directly in front of my right leg! Anyway, thanks for the note and in case you missed it, here was my "thank you" to the dealers and drummers of Ohio for a great week of clinics in the Buckeye state. Enjoy!

Cheers,
Todd

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=0NXvEe5aNNk
 
Hey Todd
Im a big fan of yours and I want to see you play live here in the Philippines
Would be great to see my biggest influence in person
 
Dear Todd,

as I wrote here before, your playing and your DVDs are a huge inspiration for me, they
have been all the way through 2012, and continue to do so :).

I have a question: I notice that you have your cymbals, your crashes mainly, mounted
fairly high. Did you choose to do so for aesthetic reasons (big rock concert style), or
because of micing and mixing reasons, or do you see a technical advantage for you?

Thanks for taking your time!
Matthias
 
Matthias,

Thanks for the kind words and support as always….

To answer your question? All of the above. It's just a feeling I want behind the drums above all else really. They are not as high as you might think if you actually sat behind my kit. (Albeit much higher than most guys with 4 piece kits with their cymbals an inch over their two toms.) It's the physical feeling of hitting the cymbals is what intrinsically pleases me. Having my ride up where it is makes me feel like I'm switching gears while driving so to speak. While I'm still young enough to play this way, I choose to do so. One day age will make me change my set up. When that day comes it will be by necessity and not choice. It's how I visualize the kit when I'm not playing and just imagining--or air drumming to work something out. Everything is in it's right place. The separation between the tom mics and overheads is just a perk. So is the "look". Again, and first and foremost, it's how I want to feel the music and my motions while playing. Hope that answers that for you!

Cheers,
Todd
 
Hey Todd, I'm having a problem lately that I think you might have some great ideas on.

I've been playing traditional grip in rock and funk bands for about 10 years now (after playing matched for the first few years). I love everything about the feel of trad, especially playing laid-back, deep-pocket backbeats. My groove is so much fatter playing trad, I think mostly because the whole motion feels more "natural" for me. Though there's plenty of people out there to dispute that statement, it works for me and I just go with it.

What's bugged me forever is playing in what I would call the highest gear - triple forte, with huge arm motions and sticks over my head. In the past I've always switched to match during these moments, because I didn't have the technique to keep the volume or the feel up in trad.

Lately though, I've been able to hit those huge backbeats in trad grip, and still keep my feel solid and my dynamics consistent (my right hand doesn't dominate in fills and such). Problem is, it's destroying my thumb - whenever I play like this for more than 10 or 15 minutes, I get a nasty blister behind my knuckle where it connects with the stick, and I think it may even be affecting the bone (the pain goes deeper than just the surface of the skin).

I'm backing off practicing this for now, but I don't want to give up on it completely.

Now, this is something that I think you're amazing at - playing aggressively and powerfully with trad - so I'm wondering if you've ever gone through something like this, or if you have any tips I might try. Unfortunately for me, there's no one in my area that plays trad AND loud, so I can't work this one out with a teacher without travelling about 1000 kms.

I'd love to hear what you think, because I know it's technically possible, and something I should be able to do for most of my playing career (like, how does Vinnie still play so freakin' loud?)
 
Hi Toby,

Sorry to hear of your issue and it's definitely no fun. Everyone is physically different obviously and ultimately you have to listen to your body. You can't force it to do something it doesn't want to do and pain is your body's way of saying "hold on--take it easy!" So there's certainly no shame in switching to matched grip for the louder moments or when you are experiencing discomfort.

I have nothing to suggest to you unless I saw you play, but one thing that helped me years ago when I was experiencing some discomfort was raising ad flattening my snare drum placement ever so slightly. Perhaps try that. But as I said, you have to listen to your body.

I hope this helps and I wish you pain free playing!

Cheers,

Todd
 
I'll definitely give that a try in a week or so after I let my hand heal up. My snare is definitely tilted at a pretty extreme angle and I like to sit pretty high above it, so those two things could be adding a lot of stress to my hand.

Thanks so much for replying!
 
Hi Todd,

I am an old drummer and I always thought I would never live to see anyone in Buddy Rich's league technically and stylistically. However, in my humble opinion, you are in his league and probably the best drummer in the world at this time. There are plenty of drummers who can play fast, but don't know how to apply it stylistically. When I listen to you play with Styx, you stay true to the original recordings, while at the same time playing creatively within those style boundaries.

I want to commend you for being so accessible to your fans and drummers in general through clinics and electronically through your website and this forum.

Can you provide your future clinic schedule, as I am sure that everyone who can would love to attend them? I hope you can do some clinics in Texas as I live right up I35 and would love to see you come to the metroplex.

Respectfully,

Phil
 
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Hi Todd,

I started taking piano at my local community college because in lamest terms I want to learn how to write songs. What are your thoughts on this? Do you think its time well invested? One more thing I have been getting into Jazz and Latin styles lately. Any suggestions on a few albums I can learn a thing or two from? Finally, thanks for your time spent here man I really appreciate your thoughts and advice in the forum and your DVD's.
 
Toby---

Hope it's working better for you!


Phil,

I appreciate the compliments very much. I'm flattered indeed. As far as clinics go I have nothing booked in Texas but will have a few in the midwest at the end of March. Although I haven't posted anything about them yet, all clinic info is always posted in the news section of Toddsucherman.com. My best to you!


Krazy--

It's time well spent and wish I would have spent some time doing just that but I put all my effort into the drums. Tony Williams took some time off and studied composition and became one of my favorite jazz composers as well as players. As far as recommendations, there's a world at your fingertips. You have free access to videos of the greats right here at Drummerworld. Check out many, many many different clips and see what floats your boat.

Cheers-
TS
 
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