Singles/Moeller Exercise (WB '12)

I made this video for a group that I taught in the Winter '12 season and wanted to stress the fact that a fun and productive way to practice is to drum to music that you love. One of the students decided to name the exercise "It's a trap!"

There's a lot of text in the YouTube video Description for this one, so I'll keep my addition here brief*, then copy/paste all of it below the break (click "explore further" at the bottom of post).

West Bloomfield 2012 Singles Exercise @ YouTube

Basically, this is a singles exercise that incorporates Moeller stroke motion, and also works a few other skills at the same time. If you aren't acquainted with Moeller, you may find yourself very tense when trying to play this exercise- if that's the case here (or ever), dial the tempo back big time, and create a simple exercise for yourself to analyze your stroke motion (preferably in a mirror). [don't fret: I'll probably end up making a post about Moeller/singles eventually]

The gist of the exercise is basically that you have to start with relaxed wrists before you can think about using your arm to lift for the slightly accented notes (which creates a somewhat "circular" motion that is natural to repeat/loop).

Welcome!

Welcome to my beat laboratory ("laboratory" pronounced quite evilly w/ 5 syllables). I've been a musician for many years in many functions, including performer, instructor, arranger, composer, tinkerer, and buffoon. Since I've "aged out" as a percussionist from most of the top-quality American marching circuits (DCI, WGI), I've found that my desire to drum hasn't diminished at all (old habits die hard?), and I still spend a good bit of time each week hitting up the old practice pad that has served me well for 14 years now.

Most of the time I spend on the pad nowadays is spent exploring/developing/tweaking various rudimental rhythms/patterns/stickings to music that I love, and I'm convinced that repetitive drumming to the music of your choice, with an extreme attention to the most minute details of your strokes developed over years of playing, is the most effective way of becoming a better musician and thinker.

Over the past year or so, I've tried to always keep a pad of paper or something nearby wherever it is that I find myself drumming in order to have the opportunity to write down some of the patterns that I've found helpful/entertaining/enlightening. I have a long backlog of these little jotted down ideas, and throughout the early stages of this blog, I'm going to be selecting some of those for web publication here [disclaimer: please excuse my sometimes sloppy notation, especially on the older notes -- I only ever jotted these things down with the intention of using them as sparks of inspiration for personal writing projects, so please leave comments and ask questions if some of the things that make perfect sense to me are at first baffling to anybody else!]. In that respect, this blog may be initially geared more towards gear-head battery percussionists who feel that they have a good understanding of technique (don't fool yourselves), but if there's a reasonable demand for it, this blog could certainly evolve in any direction, including education regarding technique/stroke mechanics -- again, feedback is key!

I also reserve the right to post anything that I feel is appropriate internet fodder to come out of the "Beat Lab", including, but not limited to, samples of whatever music projects I find myself currently engaged and interested in.

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tl;dr || WELCOME FELLOW BEAT PIONEERS. This blog is where I will post music-type things that you may be interested in. Please leave comments to possibly affect the direction of the blog, and please subscribe/follow/whatever in order to keep up!