Your Greatest "AH-HA" Moment

wow i know none of this... how have i managed to get so far in drumming without rudiments..?

You don't have to know rudiments to get anywhere in drumming. You don't have to understand or conceptualize anything you're doing-- although it sure helps-- all you have to do is sound good.

Swiss army triplets consist of three notes all of even length. The first is a flam and the last two are taps. The sticking is right flam-right-left or reversed left flam-left-right. A herta is a group of four notes in which the first two are half as long as the last two. You could have two 16th notes and then two eighth notes. The sticking I see most often is right-left-right-left, although it's also possible to put a flam on the fourth note and sticking it right-right-left-right flam. The right-right is played as a double bounce in this version.

EDIT: Considering you're left-handed, it would make sense to reverse the stickings for the hertas...
 
the difference is timing?
the first two two are one in the s a t and two in the hertas? basically?

in that case i do the hertas for dave stuff...
on the snare its the s a t, but as soon as i move around its the hertas...

and even though i play lefty, i play rudis right handed. i am ready to learn this stuff. what i found a while back is that i already know how to do alot of this stuff, i am simply assigning names to different tricks i know.
 
once i realized i was too close to the kit trying to do double bass. I backed up and wa-la, I could play in time all day.


Also, not necessarily a a-ha moment. But the first time I went to guitar center after I played my god awful cheap kit for a year. I played on a nice mapex and boom, I could just wail
 
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.


First was that girls are much more than fodder for dodge ball.

Drumming wise: That a properly tuned snare or any drum for that matter can speed up your rolls, single, double, etc... that bounce matters.
 
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.

I remember when the double stroke came for me. I started laughing, cause all of the sudden I was doing it and didn't know why. I remember the same thing with the samba. My best ah-ha moments are the ones onstage, where I slip into the space and everything becomes effortless.
 
This is hard to explain..... when I could finally use both feet & hands smoothly as part of the same phrase, instead of each one just sort of repeating it's own rhythm. I think I've heard it called "linear" playing but I don't know if that's the right term or not.

Next to that was 4-way independence, though I used to do drumline so I basically already had 3-way down when I started.
 
When I changed my set up. I am a single kick player with a double pedal and other foot goodies and I moved the kick drum off to the right as if I had a two bass drum set up even though I only have one kick. It feels more symetrical and I am much more comfortable playing.
 
>>My best ah-ha moments are the ones onstage, where I slip into the space and everything becomes effortless.<< - I'm with you on that, Matty G
But also - I used to think I would never be able to do rolls and doubles on a gig, cos I never could. Then I was in a situation where I had to - and I discovered I could!! (After some serious practice, that is - - - :eek:) )
Also, setup wise - years ago, my cymbals got higher and higher, to clear the toms, and I thought they looked cool like that. One day the guitarist complained he couldn't see me. I thought, hmm, it would be a good idea to see the other musicians and what they're doing. Also, all the photos of me playing, with my head hidden behind a cymbal, came to mind. I dropped those cymbals down, and now I can see!!! Also I'm sure the cyms sound better for not being tilted so much.
 
For me, my moment was working out of the Modern Drummer "Cross-Sticking Studies" book and I started feeling it really work. I think that might have been the most fun day of my life playing drums so far. (I have a really long way to go...)
 
Except that life is one big AH-HA moment I experienced various ones while drumming - or over night.
When I started to play drums I somehow over night got the independence to use my right foot (bass drum). I was so happy about it, this was a very motivating experience.

Another one was when I started gigging more often. The nervousness was gone after some gigs and the moment really gave me space to breath from then on when gigging.

Karl
 
When I followed Joe Morello's advice and started holding the sticks almost to the point where they fell out of my hands. The looser I became, the better the technique. Kind of opposite of what I had learned up to that point.
 
My greatest ah-ha moment came from listening to recordings of our rehearsals.
I play in a boogaloo (soul-jazz) band. I was trying to do way too much.
Ah-ha! All I really have to do is lay down a sick groove. I don't need to be throwin' crazy stuff all over the place. It sounded so much better when I just layed into the groove. Duh.
 
when I realized I should slice across my crashes with a fluid motion instead of hitting them straight on, to avoid breakage.
 
A long long time ago...

A basic ruff/drag triplet from the feet to accent snare. (i.e. (feet) R-L-R ~ to~ snare).

Ends up being the basis for all things triplet on the feet. Doubles, quads, trips, five and six stroke rolls (to countless numbers) between the hands and feet. A very "Tommy-Aldridge-ous fundamental basic" to fills and solos.
 
I remember watching Jack DeJohnette and seeing how relaxed his body was- I then learned how to let go of a lot of tension while playing -physical and mental
I also used to lift my shoulders and realized that was hindering my playing
 
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