Re: the moler technique
First of all, there are two techniques that are completely different the Free stroke (Gladstone) and the Moeller technique, although, they work together!
The Free stroke (Gladstone technique)
''Down than up as I've repeatedly said is the direct opposite of the
way everything on earth moves, don't you understand that?''
''drumsticks are like hammers''
ok, so try (better not) to hit a piece of rubber with a really heavy hammer and at the moment when it hit's the surface, stop the hammer from rebounding. What happens? 1) you absorbe completely all the inertia
2) you brake your wrists because of that...
but the most important thing is - the hammer wants to REBOUND!!! Why would you want to stop it?
The Gladstone tehcnique is based 100% on rebound, you save 50% of the energy because you never lift up the stick, so now you can add these 50% to the downstroke. The result is a stroke with maximum power and minimal effort, the sound is opened and full.
Now, the full stroke position is mostly an exercise, to understand the importance of rebound, although it's the heights of a stroke, and there's nothing wrong to play like that if you want a really big, loud and opend sound! Jojo Mayer showed me a full stroke Gladstone rimshot, it was the loudest thing I've ever heared.
Every surface has atleast some rebound, for example, if your flor tom has 50% bounce opposed to your snare drum, than the most effective and natural way would be to play with that 50% bounce.
When you absorb the energy hat comes from the drumsticks hitting the drumhead, you add strain to your body, which can lead you to injury, also the sound changes, it becomes dry and staccato
The Moeller technique
This technique is a systhem of accents, if you want to play a solid, non-accented single stroke roll, Moeller is not the technique for this purpose.
The Moeller stroke starts from the down position, you pull the back of the stick upwards (the tip of the stick is in contact with the drum head) and then you do a whip ''pow'' there's the stroke, this motion is similar like waving a horsewhip, the energy from the hand is transfered to the horsewhip, you can see a waving motion there, that's the inertia being transfered
Jojo Mayer showing the basic Moeller motion (without rebound)
http://drummerworld.com/News/JoJoMayerDVD3.html
The Moeller technique has two options, you can play it with rebound or without rebound
pillows or practice pads?
this is what
Jojo Mayer told me:
''Here's my 10 cents on this one:
Personally, I never practiced on pillows. Intuitively it felt not right. It's too much strain on your body to build facilities that way...we are musicians...not athletes.
Pillow practice will train your muscles against resistance and change the balance of the muscles towards slow twitching muscles as opposed to fast twitching muscles...you will build power, yes... Speed ,no. You were right about this (marathon/sprinter)
[edit, the thing I sayed was: ''maybe training muscle mass if wanting to get speed and endurance is not the best way, think of marathon runners and sprinters compaerd to wieght lifters'']
I guess the bottom line is that by practicing on pillows you will obtain a style of playing "throug" the drums as opposed to "out" of the drums. When you practice on pillows you will sound like playing on pillows behind the drumset too!
Dennis, Blackwell or Donati: dry staccato sound. Listen to Omar Hakim, Steve Smith, Morello or Weckl: open singing sound...
All these players have great control, speed and power.....so I guess go for the sound!''
A strong wrist is the key of great technique, but you have to be smart on how to train it, it's more effective to do stretching exercises (free stroke, full stroke position, do the Stone killer exercise for 30 minutes and your hands will fall from being tired) than resistance exercises (pillow practice)
in the end, I'd like to say that there is no right or wrong technique, but there are the natural approach to drumming, from the musical stand point, the most important thing is the sound and it's completely insignificant how you acheive it, but... as a drummer, you want to keep yourself in good shape and prevent yourself from unwanted shock, injuries etc
I had the luck to learn from Jojo Mayer and he compeltely changed the way I play and also changed my musical thinking (but that's a bit off topic for this discussion)
This is how all these Gladstone and Moeller principles look, the master at work...
http://www.drummerworld.com/Videos/jojomayerbasel1.html
This dvd is an absolute must have for every serious drummer, do ourselves a favour - BUY IT!! It will end all this discussions
best of luck,
Raymond