Lessons, Week 42

We reviewed the flam and the flam tap and the flam-a-diddle. Then we spent a good long time working on my left hand. And then we worked on the triplet exercises he gave me a month or so ago that I'd abandoned because I couldn't get my bass drum and high hat foot working. When we picked up those exercises last night my bass and high hat worked like a charm (I've been working on that alot) and I was able to do the triplet exercises on top of that after a little work. The next step, he said, would be to change the pattern to play the bass on the "let" of the triplet instead of on 1, 2, 3, 4. That is going to mess with my head. We talked a little about pulling back...feel I guess. Playing the bass and snare a little quieter and having everything at the same level. I was banging away on those triplets on the snare prior to that. These triplet exercises are great for 4 way independence...so now that I've conquered some problems I was having with them, I'm going to try to work on them in earnest.

I've been feeling for a while that my left hand technique was messed up, but didn't really know how to fix it. We talked about the difference in using your fingers versus using your wrist. I tend to clamp down so that there's no space between my thumb and fingers. I need to relax that so that there is a bit of a "C" shaped space. The other key is lining up my index and thumb. If the index is way higher on the stick than the thumb, there's no bounce. By lining them up even...or even with the thumb a little higher than the index, the bounce comes. And the bounce is from the middle, ring, and/or pinky pushing...not from the wrist (at least when playing with your fingers). When playing with the wrist, try to let the rebound take the stick all the way back. To do that, you have to clear away the middle, ring, and pinky so that they don't stop the stick. Playing with the fingers felt REALLY different than what I'm used to, but if I can just remember how I did it and practice it, I think it is going to be really helpful.


Above: WRONG-hand is clamped up too tight


Above: RIGHT-"C" shaped opening between thumb and hand


Above: WRONG-index finger is too high


Above: RIGHT-index finger and thumb are even (or thumb slightly higher)

The whole idea that playing quietly is okay was good too. I think I've been so rock music paranoid that I wasn't being heard that I've been banging away really hard to the detriment of my technique. I think if I can get good technique, then I can build volume. That...and maybe realize that volume isn't always so important.

"It's not just the what...it's the how."