Most important techniques and rudiments?

Hi, this is my first post, but I've been a long time lurker...

So I've been playing for maybe 8 years now. I had lessons for a few years, but apart from that I'm primarily self taught. For that reason my technique is not great.

I think the main bottleneck in my playing at the moment is just speed. My singles and doubles are pretty slow considering I'm trying to do everything with just wrists. So, in your experience what are the techniques you use most to increase speed? And what other rudiments do you use a lot in your playing?
Also I play mainly alt rock music.

I'm now a skint student and have no money for lessons, and only get to use a kit once every 2 weeks or so when I practice with my band (it would probably be a bit rude to ignore my band mates and start practising my rudiments though). I have a practice pad, but I live in a dorm with 2 neighbours I don't exactly get on with that well, and they get pissed with me practising for too long. Point is, in an ideal world I'd learn every technique out there, and hopefully one day I will, but in my current situation I want to prioritize the most important ones in the limited amount of time I have to practice.


I also have a more specific question... I've been trying to learn finger control. I started out instinctively using German grip, but looking at lots of youtube videos, most seem to use French grip. Should I persevere with german, or is french more useful for finger control?

Thanks for any help

I'd recommend fixing your stroke. The quickest way to accomplish this is to do the extreme-hands-makeover on drumworkout.com with BillB. It's ~20 a month, and will take 1-2 months to be fixed forever. It's exactly what you're looking for.

Definetly work on fingers, which yes, necessitates American or French grip.

For singles and doubles, although you can do many things, don't forget the traditional slow to fast and back down way and also accenting the second stroke on your doubles.

If I couldn't practice in my own room I'd probably just og to the wash room, some storage room or whatever. At night, even in the shower. Where there's a will, there's a way.

This is such a huge question. I would suggest substituting the word control for the word speed. Speed naturally follows control.

Contact a proven great hands/technique teacher. Bill Bachman is the man for hands/technique, as well as anything else.

Yes Bill is the man. Definitely check out his website because a few forum posts are never going to get into the level of detail that you need.

The first step is developing the free stroke. This is essentially the concept of accepting the rebound and not stifling the stick. In a free stroke, the stick never touches the palm and the stick is never lifted off the drum. You throw the stick down and the rebound picks it up for you.

Many people never truly get this and it stifles everything they do afterwards.

When it comes to fingers; German sucks. French and American are the way to go.