Though there aren't any 12th notes on Lang's DVD. At least not on the excercises which I find btw most usefull for anyone who does lots of improvisation. But I guess I should just let it go and be a flesh metronome like every one here tries to teach us to be...
The existence of twelfth notes is not the issue. I'm glad you got some use out of the exercises on Thomas' DVD. However, the general - i.e. not specific - point is that there is a whole lot of "technique" flying around in electronic form that is beyond the needs and use of the vast majoirity of novice drummers. Can you say that the multiple-pedal independence stuff Thomas demonstrates is the sort of thing a novice drummer ought to be studying? How many gigs will that get you?
The other - general - point I was making was that these electronic media divert people away from real living mentors, and the lack of such contact can just as easily damage a player's development in the early stages as help it. It is very easy to take an exercise or technique away from a DVD and go about practicing it entirely incorrectly without supervision from a qualified teacher.
Your point that many drummers strive to be merely "flesh metronomes" is, I can only guess, a suggestion that there is more to drumming than merely keeping time. And on that point, I wholeheartedly agree. However, the time for that kind of thing is once certain fundamental abilities have been understood and mastered. Again, I was talking about the availability of technical knowledge to novices. Your successes notwithstanding, I stick to my original point: that the availability of so much technical information does not necessarily serve the general drumming population well. There are just as many cases (I see them everyday) where beginners become distracted from putting in the real work it takes to develop the tools to be a working professional player because they're too busy playing "gravity blasts" and working out how to play sextuplets grouped in 5s and 7s with their hands while playing in 15/8 with their feet. (Note: this last sentence does not refer to anyone in particular and is meant as a general metaphor for the pursuit of technical complexity out of the context of musical application...)
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