Wading back into the shallow end of drumming after 12+ year break, tips/advice?

good luck with that! it'll be great! don't forget to ask him all the stuff you asked here.

He did help me with my stick holding technique, said what I was doing was good but tweaked it a bit. Actually his suggestions made it easier to play so they were not hard to incorporate into my methods.

I have been learning to read sheet music that is played on a drumset, well kinda.. we haven't gotten that far but I played ahead in the book. Its difficult to learn but it is coming to me pretty quickly. Ill bet I hit a brick wall within 3-4 weeks and it gets very difficult.

In the meanwhile the fast progress is inspiring.

Evan

sounds good! what did he tell you to do with your grip?

Actually it wasn't so much my grip but the details. He really stressed using my fingers against the back of the stick, which actually comes pretty fast. My left hand still feels goofy of course, but its coming along.

The other thing was to keep the sticks closer to 90 degrees, I had a tendency to bring them together and almost end up in a french grip.

Evan

that's good advice about holding your sticks more with your back fingers. my drum teacher taught me that too and it's helped a lot. it really helps with playing fast jazz ride patterns, left hand shuffles, and other things like that.