- Hi, Bruce Becker here, at up at Drumeo headquarters,
and I wanted to bring forward a topic that is near
and dear to my heart.
And that is the development of technique.
It's what I've been doing now for 37 years,
been very fortunate to work with some great guys
through my years, and I just want to bring forward
a few steps, three easy steps that might assist you
in pushing your technique forward.
I've seen many people approach the instrument
in a way that could be harmful, detrimental,
could injure yourself.
You might be hitting a wall, you might find yourself
not being able to execute exactly what it is you hear,
so in terms of throwing something out,
I wanted to be very clear cut and tangible,
and give you a few things to think about and process
and hopefully that'll make a little bit of a change
and shift your playing to a different direction.
So first and foremost, is what I see as very critical
is finding the balance of the stick.
Now, once you find it, you can work with it.
That doesn't mean you always have to play
in a balanced position.
You can move it around, it doesn't need to stay static there
but in general terms, you do wanna honor that.
That's where you're gonna get the most bang for your buck.
Make it easy, take the path of least resistance,
don't work against it.
If you find that place of balance
and you are able to let go, you'll find that the stick
will actually bounce for you and you don't have
struggle and fight against it.
So that's the first thing that I would sort of address
as a critical element of housing the stick.
I see a lotta guys pinching and applying so much pressure
that the stick is wedged so deep into the hand
that there is no separation between the actual
pivoting potential of the stick and the hand unto itself.
So, find the balance, work with that,
and see if that starts to make the paradigm shift
that you're looking for.
One of the second things that I see, that I think you can
make an easy transfer to, is to find the motion.
So, in essence what comes down, must also come up
to come down.
So you wanna find that cycle of movement
so you're able to come up and down easily.
And use that element to choreograph many of your movements.
If we're just speaking plain, old simple eighth notes,
you can make it a downstroke or an upstroke to a downstroke
very easy.
No problem whatsoever.
You have to learn to let go, find the fanning or the waving
nature of the stick and wrist
and use it to your advantage.
If you're playing eighth notes, like I said,
or sixteenth notes faster,
you're gonna use that element of motion.
You wouldn't wanna power down and try to play
sixteenth notes and just from your forearm
and wedge into the high hat.
That's not gonna last very long.
You'll maybe last about three bars
before your arm starts to give out.
So find that up to downstroke.
It exists in every rudiment.
You can find a down and upstroke and orchestrate that
to your advantage to find the flow which is most important.
That's what I try to embark upon with every one
of my students to assist them on their path
of developing a flow.
The third and final thing that I see,
is the disconnection of the fingers from the stick.
In other words, the guy is holding the stick here,
and his fingers are not really able to move naturally
with the pivoting stick.
That can create some, what a ya wanna say,
technical flaws, some movement flaws
that may interrupt what you're trying to execute.
So, when you're going down that path,
a simple exercise to develop that is just to use
a fulcrum wrist bounce.
With your fulcrum in the German position mainly being
your middle finger, but assisted by your index finger
and thumb working in tandem with your wrist,
and they are synchronized in their motion
to open up the stroke, but watch my fingers
They are following the body of the stick
on every single note.
I don't want them to flail away
and move away from the stick.
If you can create that harmony of movement
with stick and fingers,
that can be also of great assistance.
That can actually, all three of those things
working together can really set you on a path
to push you forward.
Again, doing nothing creates nothing.
You gotta get out and apply that,
but if you just sit down and understand
a little bit of the dynamic of the up and down,
get a little bit of the bounce, reposition your stick,
that can make a huge difference
in what you have going on.
So, if you wanna expand on any of these three notions
I've put forward, take me to task,
come and join my Drum Technique Made Easy course.
Click the link below, and you'll find a great course
that will advance all your technical skills,
find more fluidity, the path of least resistance
and push your game up where you maybe thought
you couldn't bring it before.
Remember, you gotta put forward the effort.
I'll be the coach pushing you ahead,
and I have an organized approach that will assist you
all the way through this process of the course.
Once again, Bruce Becker here inviting you
to take advantage of Drum Technique Made Easy.
Click the link below.
Love to see ya down the line and interact with you
during the whole course.
See ya real soon.
Peace.