I think you were/are just in Turkey right?
If so, the hat is very suitable.
play music
this is not a race
Ah your first plateau. These can linger for some time. An easier way is don't think in terms of speed, think in terms of control. Once you get control....speed is right around the corner. Forget fast. Go for perfect. Clean. Totally in control. Control at a slower speed trumps sloppiness at higher speeds every day of the week.
Once you get perfection and control at a slow speed, then you are ready to move on to a higher tempo. Take it slow, there's no rush. Enjoy the scenery on your trip. It's the journey not the destination. If you can enjoy practicing at slow speeds while you gain control, you have this thing licked. It just takes time spent doing.
Thanks again for the comments. Just cobbled together another (bad) video and, when comparing it to my first, it seems some progress has been made. Whether it's enough for two months of practice is another issue.
Here's my first ever attempt at playing a practice pad
http://youtu.be/jn7Nklpgig8
And here's the video I just shot at 240bpm. I can go to about 320 but not consistently.
http://youtu.be/SQQDPlwD4JQ
God I look fat in this video. Serves me right for having the camera angle pointed upwards.
I love the clarity of your practicing. Your clearly doing some great work and will be breaking through to the next plateau soon!
1) hard to tell, but something is a little off with the fulcrum. You are feeling like you nee to support the stick from underneath?
2) first, your thumbs appear to be far more closed than they should be. It looks like maybe you are holding them in fairly close. Even in French Grip (thumb on top) they should still be open. If tension isn't helping you play, it is hurting, and you only need just enough squeeze from the thumb to maintain the fulcrum and that's it.
3) it seems you are doing a kind of karate-chop movement with the wrist. there isn't a lot of range of motion in that direction, and this is not really safe to do in the long run. Besides, the waving goodbye movement is much more powerful.
4) How much of this is playing on a pad that is so low? If it is your only option you can, fwiw, tilt the pad away from you to improve the striking angle.
The answers obvious: you've achieved all you're going to achieve as a drummer, and it's downhill from here.
KING TIGER originally posted :-
Now relax, have a few Newcastle Brown's, and keep rolling.
To be fair I'm maybe doing better than I think. If I set my metronome at 300BPM and count one tap to every beat I can alternate between eight on a hand, four on a hand, double stroke rolls, single stroke rolls, singe paradiddles, paradiddlediddles, double paradiddles, triple paradiddles and one or two other sticking patterns without think about it and swapping at random.
As I went through learning the rudiments and so forth, really mastering some of them ( so I thought), practice became more about approach and how loose I could hold the sticks in my hand, how fluid each stroke became.Thanks again for the encouraging words. Looking forward to my first lesson, hopefully next week.
Thanks so much for taking the time to review the videos in detail. To respond to your points:
1) Can you expand on what you man by the fulcrum looking a little off? I'm not quite sure what you mean. Have you an example of how the fulcrum should look? </quote>
I'm not sure what it is, it is hard to tell from the one angle. There are a LOT of good fulcrums, and even double fulcrums, but they all involve pinching the stick slightly between the a thumb bone and a finger bone
<quote> 2) I'm not sure what you mean by thumbs being open or closed. What does an open thumb grip look like?</quote>
<quote>
3) Agreed - I'm going to stick to the waving motion and shoot the video again.
4) Agreed - I've just put another two pillows under the pad and got it higher and things do seem easier. I have it at a height where my forearms are almost parallel with the ground and almost at the same height as the pad.</quote>
The muscles in your arm have the greatest mechanical advantage when the forearm is parallel to the ground.
Just shot another video trying to put into practice some of what you've said. I also upped the speed to 260bpm:
https://youtu.be/JAwV6liUFwA
Your pinky is sticking out because your are bending your wrist to the side to stick your thumb forward, as per this photo.
http://image.wikifoundry.com/image/1/DJQofC0xXGE-gTM1aJz2CQ114203/GW300H600
Bending your wrist in this way creates a lot of unneeded tension and compression, especially on the pinky side of the wrist, and makes any movement at the wrist harder.
I'm writing an illustrated section on this in my upcoming book on the anatomy + biomechanics of drumming.
Depending on your he fulcrum, the stick should stick out at an 45-60 degree angle from the arm. Index finger fulcrums are bigger than middle finger fulcrums.
There's 40 rudiments out there from what I can see. Which ones should I learn for sure and in what order?
Man, sign up for Bill Bachman's program