Steve Smith Plays Wilcoxon 124

Playing all of these 16th notes and 32nd notes against the hi-hat and bass drum, by reading the lines in real time..

Looks very difficult.

impressive.
 
Just spectacular! And so inspiring, too. Always loved his dedication to the craft of music. Every bit as good as when I saw him with Buddy's Buddies in the mid 2000's.
 
Playing all of these 16th notes and 32nd notes against the hi-hat and bass drum, by reading the lines in real time..

Looks very difficult.

impressive.

Well, I assume he practiced. I mean, this Wilcoxon solo is pretty fun, so that probably makes it easier to make yourself practice it. Lol
 
The origins of Smith's greatness are readily traceable. At the outset of the below video, a brief promotional piece for Zildjian's A Avedis series, Smith explains that he spent his first two years as a drummer on a practice pad before his instructor said he was "ready" for a snare drum. After another year on a snare, he finally got a kit. He devoted three years exlusively to hand technique. Rudiments pave the path to excellence.

 
Last edited:
2 years on a pad and 1 year on the snare only. o_O Similar to the story of my grand-father telling me that they had to walk 10 Km to go to school.

Very severe, not for the millennial and the common snowflake!

?
 
2 years on a pad and 1 year on the snare only. o_O Similar to the story of my grand-father telling me that they had to walk 10 Km to go to school.

Very severe, not for the millennial and the common snowflake!

?

My program of study wasn't too far off. I presumed, as a beginning drummer, that I'd be playing a kit from the start, but my initial lesson was a jolting reality check. My instructor enforced a pad-only regimen for the first year, followed by six months on a snare. I then progressed to a snare, bass, and hi-hat for another six months. I had a full kit about two years after my first lesson.

I wouldn't change a thing about the way I learned to drum. It was a wonderful disciplinary journey I would never have pursued independently. And you're right -- many kids today would recoil from such a spartan training system. That's a cultural shortcoming as far as I'm concerned.
 
Last edited:
My program of study wasn't too far off. I presumed, as a beginning drummer, that I'd be playing a kit from the start, but my initial lesson was a jolting reality check. My instructor enforced a pad-only regimen for the first year, followed by six months on a snare. I then progressed to a snare, bass, and hi-hat for another six months. I had a full kit about two years after my first lesson.

I wouldn't change a thing about the way I learned to drum. It was a wonderful disciplinary journey I would never have pursued independently. And you're right -- many kids today would recoil from such a spartan training system. That's a cultural shortcoming as far as I'm concerned.
It's really like in the Karate Kid, exactly. :)
 
I have to admit, if I were teaching a beginner from the ground up, I think I’d want them playing the Stick Control exercises on the feet as well as the hands, from day 1. I wish someone had made me train my feet that way.
 
I have to admit, if I were teaching a beginner from the ground up, I think I’d want them playing the Stick Control exercises on the feet as well as the hands, from day 1. I wish someone had made me train my feet that way.
Lots of teaching systems in circulation. Hard to say one or the other is the slam-dunk method. For me, after my hands were conditioned, incorporating the bass and hi-hat pedals came pretty easily. Others might have different accounts. Few discoveries would be made if we all took the same route.
 
I have to admit, if I were teaching a beginner from the ground up, I think I’d want them playing the Stick Control exercises on the feet as well as the hands, from day 1. I wish someone had made me train my feet that way.
That's what I do every morning, practicing the Stone Stick Control book, It helps me wake up in the morning.

My working day starts at 8:30 but I wake up at 6:00 so I can have 25 - 30 minutes at the job to practice one or 2 pages of the Stone Stick Control book, on my pad.. It literally helps me start my day.

I m a better person since I wake up at 6 in the morning instead of 7:15 or even 7:30, all that because of SC :) (And to get a closer parking spot too)
 
I also have the All American drummer book now :) I am going to start it soon, alternating it with Stick Control.

Seriously I love these books, it's fun to read the notation and to play it on the pad, I swear it.

--> The fun of playing on a pad is underrated.
 
Back
Top