Single strokes (how to develop them)

[YamahaPlayer]

Relaxation is what it's all about!

The problem is that many people learn technique and do not have anything in their head to say, so they play 3 zillion notes to make up for it. I have heard many drummers with minimal technique who sound great, and many with chops galore who sound like shit.

Playing music is the best way to get better at playing drums. Have a problem with something, play it slow, then speed up.

Then I would implore you to understand, if a player quote "sounds like shit" - then they do NOT have chops.

I agree that far to many players focus on ONLY the technique aspects of playing and ignore the musical aspects. I always encourage my students to spend as much, or more time playing musically as they do practicing exercises, technique, etc

I think "free play" is an important part of cultivating ideas and learning to let them flow, particularly against vamps, play alongs, etc so you can develop a vocabulary that is allows your voice to be creative on the kit.

[Phil T.]

Being relax is the key for everything !!!

In life, too!

[Gaddabout]

Being relax is the key for everything !!!

Medical marijuana is now legal in my state. Wonder if I can get a doctor's prescription because my singles suck and I need help relaxing ...

[Matus]

Relaxation is what it's all about!

The problem is that many people learn technique and do not have anything in their head to say, so they play 3 zillion notes to make up for it. I have heard many drummers with minimal technique who sound great, and many with chops galore who sound like shit.

Playing music is the best way to get better at playing drums. Have a problem with something, play it slow, then speed up.

Then I would implore you to understand, if a player quote "sounds like shit" - then they do NOT have chops.

I agree that far to many players focus on ONLY the technique aspects of playing and ignore the musical aspects. I always encourage my students to spend as much, or more time playing musically as they do practicing exercises, technique, etc

I think "free play" is an important part of cultivating ideas and learning to let them flow, particularly against vamps, play alongs, etc so you can develop a vocabulary that is allows your voice to be creative on the kit.

Wouldn't all that stuff count as technique, too? Getting a good sound out of your drums consistently requires practice and creating some physical mecanisms and not everyone can do that. We've all seen people who can play absurdly fast with an awful sound. Or a good control of dynamics, or the ability to smoothly switch from a backsided cross stick to a regular matched grip backbeat, that's technique to me.
Narrowing technique down to just speed and stickings is utterly absurd IMO, a good technique study would spend more time on the slow part than blazing notes away. And that's just the physical aspect of it.

[Jim Richman]

Relaxation is what it's all about!

The problem is that many people learn technique and do not have anything in their head to say, so they play 3 zillion notes to make up for it. I have heard many drummers with minimal technique who sound great, and many with chops galore who sound like shit.

Playing music is the best way to get better at playing drums. Have a problem with something, play it slow, then speed up.

Then I would implore you to understand, if a player quote "sounds like shit" - then they do NOT have chops.

I agree that far to many players focus on ONLY the technique aspects of playing and ignore the musical aspects. I always encourage my students to spend as much, or more time playing musically as they do practicing exercises, technique, etc

I think "free play" is an important part of cultivating ideas and learning to let them flow, particularly against vamps, play alongs, etc so you can develop a vocabulary that is allows your voice to be creative on the kit.

If a player sounds like shit, then they sound like shit, chops or not. I just saying that playing music is better than practicing technique, cause technique is aquired by playing music. It's undeniable that a drummer will be a better player if he plays with other musicians, than if he practices technique by himself.
Have a problem playing fast singles or doublebass? play some punk rock or metal songs. Have a heavy hand, play some acoustic jazz. Learn standards. Learn songs.

Learning songs is what great drummers do, not fast singles. Having a problem learning a song? Play it a few hundred times and play along. You'll get it, and your 'chops' will get way better by playing to a song than to a practice pad and a metronome.

I do have to say that learning how to hit a drum and having a proper grip is one of the first and last things you need to know.

[Matus]

If a player sounds like shit, then they sound like shit, chops or not. I just saying that playing music is better than practicing technique, cause technique is aquired by playing music. It's undeniable that a drummer will be a better player if he plays with other musicians, than if he practices technique by himself.
Have a problem playing fast singles or doublebass? play some punk rock or metal songs. Have a heavy hand, play some acoustic jazz. Learn standards. Learn songs.

Learning songs is what great drummers do, not fast singles. Having a problem learning a song? Play it a few hundred times and play along. You'll get it, and your 'chops' will get way better by playing to a song than to a practice pad and a metronome.

I do have to say that learning how to hit a drum and having a proper grip is one of the first and last things you need to know.

That's only half true. Many things must be worked on to achieve a certain level as a musician, one of them being playing songs, which isn't the same as playing with people, BTW.
You can't expect a person who only plays songs to have the same command over concepts like odd groupings on even time signatures as someone who's spent the time to work on the subject alone and then put in context. Sure, you can get pretty good but you will get only so far without the theory and primary practice.
I think you keep associating "technique" with speed and flashy chops and that's, again, only half true.

[Rodge]

Being relax is the key for everything !!!

In life, too!

Yes, for everything, that's what I said.

[YamahaPlayer]

Totally Matus, technique encompasses a wide range of issues, from consistent sound to touch, feel and groove. I would even say things like sight reading and interpretation fall under technique, not necessarily physical, but mental.

Learning songs is what great drummers do, not fast singles. Having a problem learning a song? Play it a few hundred times and play along. You'll get it, and your 'chops' will get way better by playing to a song than to a practice pad and a metronome.

Now that is just absurd and flat out wrong. You are over generalizing by an incredible degree and ignoring the requirement for specific tactical repetition in a highly controlled situation of a wide variety of issues, from rudimental studies, pure physical technique, reading studies, time studies and so on.

The "great drummers" as you put it, are incredibly huge proponents of working with a pad and metronome, and ALL of them have spent countless hours doing it. And STILL do to this day.

There is indeed a balancing act between the physical technique's required to play drums, the mental ones and the musical ones - you need all 3 to pull it off.

Point in case, spending 5 hours practicing 1 song is a supreme waste of time. The amount of effective and diverse beneficial practice that could be had in that time frame FAR exceeds the results of playing a single song 100 times.

[Gaddabout]

I love how someone's post about how to develop single strokes, which is Rudiment No. 1 in anyone's book, has become a passive-aggressive discussion on chops vs. musicality. I would sort of expect this on other boards where the Chops Police are always out on patrol, but not here, where the overwhelming majority of posters are seasoned and educated drummers who lean far to the side of skill.

Musicality is such an esoteric term and I find it thoroughly derogatory when used in criticism in threads like this.

There's no such thing as having too much skill. There's no such thing as skill degrading one's taste or musicality. Just because there are drummers out there with supreme skill and no musical taste doesn't make that the default arrival point for drummers who pursue great skill. Why some people jump to this assumption makes me suspicious and wonder what they're NOT saying in other threads where we fawn over Vinnie, Jojo, Chambers and other drummers who also have supreme skill.

FWIW, Vinnie is known to carry sticks with him at all times and he's constantly playing on any surface available, including drum pads. This happens even today. I can't imagine him discouraging someone from pursuing great singles or qualifying there's a break point where the pursuit will make that person a less musical drummer.

What seems totally obvious to me is how musical that drummer is will be informed by a lot of things that have nothing to do with the pursuit of skill. They'll be informed by the variety of music they've been exposed to, how much of it they've played, the variety of drum heroes they have, etc. If someone falls in love with an unmusical drummer, odds are they'll follow the same path. And vice versa. And probably even more so how much they love music and making it with other people vs. how much they just love the drums.

[Ardent15]

I love how someone's post about how to develop single strokes, which is Rudiment No. 1 in anyone's book, has become a passive-aggressive discussion on chops vs. musicality. I would sort of expect this on other boards where the Chops Police are always out on patrol, but not here, where the overwhelming majority of posters are seasoned and educated drummers who lean far to the side of skill.

Musicality is such an esoteric term and I find it thoroughly derogatory when used in criticism in threads like this.

There's no such thing as having too much skill. There's no such thing as skill degrading one's taste or musicality. Just because there are drummers out there with supreme skill and no musical taste doesn't make that the default arrival point for drummers who pursue great skill. Why some people jump to this assumption makes me suspicious and wonder what they're NOT saying in other threads where we fawn over Vinnie, Jojo, Chambers and other drummers who also have supreme skill.

FWIW, Vinnie is known to carry sticks with him at all times and he's constantly playing on any surface available, including drum pads. This happens even today. I can't imagine him discouraging someone from pursuing great singles or qualifying there's a break point where the pursuit will make that person a less musical drummer.

What seems totally obvious to me is how musical that drummer is will be informed by a lot of things that have nothing to do with the pursuit of skill. They'll be informed by the variety of music they've been exposed to, how much of it they've played, the variety of drum heroes they have, etc. If someone falls in love with an unmusical drummer, odds are they'll follow the same path. And vice versa. And probably even more so how much they love music and making it with other people vs. how much they just love the drums.

Exactly, and I would add that it's not about chops vs musicality, it's chops FOR THE PURPOSE OF musicality.

Chops are a means to an end. The great players know this.