On drums...

After forty-eight years of hitting drums, this year I finally tumbled to finger technique. Now, why didn't somebody tell me?

All you guys are already proficient, but I have never been taught it, and ignored the suggestions in work books because it seemed to have nothing to do with Louie Louie. Well, duh...

Even though I have been bringing my volume down there has remained a double frustration; playing quietly while remaining accurate, articulate, quick and loose, and at the same time having good tone, has not been possible.

And yesterday I put on some jazz to play along with it, and suddenly using just the fingers to move the sticks came clear to me. Revelation. If you don't know about it, get with it.

A book by Charley Wilcoxon, Wrist and Finger Stroke Control for the Advanced Drummer puts it very nicely; "... the ultimate in drumming technique... great power is not possible, neither is it expected. But, if the drummer is seeking fast, sharp, and clean flowing technique, the Finger Stroke is the 'end.'"

Only thing is, yesterday I was pounding stakes into the ground with a sledge, and today I can barely control my hand muscles at all.

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Gregory

Big hammers and stick control do not go hand in hand!
Greg you should check out some of the jojo mayer vids on finger control, they are pretty inspiring.

Tim, I'm sure they are; I've seen one or two of his videos and he's impressive, but the fact is that without some sort of divine intervention I'm never going to excel at prestidigitation. A mere competency at volume control, clean sticking and tonal coherence will keep me busy for quite a while.

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Gregory