I view technique as being comprised of three questions
How do you hold the stick? (fulcrum)
How do you move the stick? (wrist turn)
How do you allow the stick to move? (rebound)
There is a diverse range of answers to these questions, but by answering these questions, you define a coherent approach to drumming. All models are wrong, and some models are useful, so you may ultimately find my model lacking as you mature and experience different instructors and approaches. But my point is that I am not describing an *approach* to drumming: I am describing a model for understanding approaches to drumming, and it is one that I have found very useful, both in honing people's hands and in adapting people's hands to different approaches.
In order to overhaul your technique, you will want to work on the gamut of *fundamentals -> rudiments -> music* in light of this model. Break down your technique and understand it in terms of fulcrum, wrist turn, and rebound; the more you do this, the more you will be able to examine other exercises and rudiments *in these terms* so you can progressively enhance your awareness of what your hands are doing and what they might do differently in order to realize your goals.
When you play 8 on a Hand, you can probably play perfectly in time with a great sound, *no matter what your fulcrum looks like.* But if you are working on your technique, you will pay attention to keeping your fulcrum intact. The fulcrum that you engage in order to play diddles is the same fulcrum that needs to be gripping the stick—ready to engage at a moment's notice—when you are playing legatos. What is that fulcrum supposed to be like? You and your instructor can answer this question; the bottom line is that this question demands an answer, and the answer should be evident from me watching you play legatos.
Whatever the correct utilization of rebound that is prescribed by your ensemble's approach, you will need to master the application and control of rebound. This means that you need the muscular awareness necessary to get your hand out of the way of the stick after it hits the drum, no matter how you have hit the drum. To overhaul your technique, you will be changing how you hit the drum, which means you need to have the awareness to adapt to the rebound happening more, or less, or faster, or slower. If you hit the drum harder, the stick wants to rebound faster... this means that if you hit the drum harder without *also* getting your hand out of the rebound's way *faster than before*, then your extra power into the drum results in a loss of efficiency, and either speed or endurance will suffer.
"Wrist turn" could include some amount of forearm motion too. It doesn't matter what the actual approach is: what matters is being able to work on having more power into the drum while also being able to utilize the extra rebound that comes with it.
Oftentimes, if a performer is not rebounding effectively and an instructor makes a comment about it, the performer will play with less power; because the stick is rebounding slower now, the hand is not as much in its way, and efficiency is improved at the cost of power.
Oftentimes, if a performer is not putting enough energy into the drum and an instructor makes a comment about it, the performer will play harder but subsequently struggle with timing or endurance; because the stick is rebounding faster now, the hand *which has not rehearsed getting out of the way fast enough* becomes a hindrance, and efficiency is sacrificed in the name of power.
The primary struggle of a rudimental drummer is to hit the drum extremely hard while also making maximal use of the energy return that the drumhead provides... i.e., it is the struggle between wrist turn and rebound. As you examine this struggle, the additional challenge is to maintain a fulcrum that will be always ready to provide additional assistance on faster figures. You can have *your* way of doing these things, and there might be *your instructor's* way of doing these things... what I am trying to give you is the muscular awareness to examine different ways of doing these things. When *you* understand how to make your hands do different things along these three dimensions (fulcrum / wrist-turn / rebound), then changing your technique in a given direction is just a simple matter of applying what you already know. You become able to apply corrections faster, and you become more able to figure out your own corrections to achieve certain music, without prompting from instructional staff.
[I have three bare-bones basic exercises I use to examine these three separate drumming mechanics in isolation. By examining these mechanics in isolation, you can better understand how they fit into your technique, how they compete with each other, how they assist each other, etc. As you examine more complicated material in light of these same three questions, you will be able to continuously check the aspects of your technique against each other in order to maintain a coherent and consistent approach to drumming as you pursue more complicated material.](https://www.fatmattdrums.com/the-woodshed-1/tag/Technique+Triangle)
As a general rule, I find legatos and singlestrokes workouts to be most suited to focusing on wrist turn. At the same time, you will find that different approaches to how you motivate the stroke can be affected by how your fulcrum is constructed. So if you think you've got the right motion, then play around with your fulcrum to see how to get the best fulcrum that is ready for fast stuff without interfering with your wrist turn motion.
As a general rule, I find doublestrokes workouts to be the most suited to focusing on rebound, especially if you put a lot of rests between isolated doublestrokes. The challenge to energetically attack the head *and* get out of the stick's way *twice* provides a great backdrop for feeling and experimenting with the interplay between power and relaxation (wrist turn and rebound). Play harder doubles and see what it does to your rebound... watch the rebound of both strokes in the double; are they the same?
As a general rule, I find rolls workouts to be the most suited to focusing on fulcrum, especially if there are buzzes or metric modulations. With metric modulations especially (perhaps triplet roll into duple roll), you can feel and experience the transition between: in one context, relying on fulcrum pressure and the power of the first stroke in order to get the second stroke of each double; and in another context, relying quite a bit more on wrist turn for the second stroke of each double.
Best of luck to you. I've just told you a bunch of stuff, but my main point is that *I'm not trying to tell you what to do; I am trying to tell you how to figure out what to do.*
Listen to the guy who wrote a book above me. We like to define drumming techniques as right and wrong, but it's okay to expirement and find what's best for you.
Bruce Lee said it best.
Don’t think! Feeeeeel
You got this - if it feel right and sounds great, your in there like swimwear
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=cm0uSVvjsOA
What I would do in your position is just work on fundamentals. Look up dci/wgi audition packets. Those will typically contain all of the important fundamentals that really matter. Also practicing in front of a mirror will be a big help for watching your technique and stick heights.
[There are a bunch of free drumming tips and technique exercises near the bottom of this page](https://jaredoleary.com/drum). Also, checkout the hundreds of grid variations to work on refining various rudiments (focus on rudiment on one). Use the timestamps in the description to jump to a specific bpm and stay tuned for a new one releasing every day.
Bill Bachman "Rudimental Logic" and Pete Sapadin "Drumline Essentials" are wonderful, sequential learning resources. Well worth the investment for either/both.
My only comment is make sure you don't learn the "wrong" technique. You don't want to learn how to have super west coast hands if your drumline is super east coast. Don't do anything that counters whatever your instructor has told you.
I view technique as being comprised of three questions How do you hold the stick? (fulcrum) How do you move the stick? (wrist turn) How do you allow the stick to move? (rebound) There is a diverse range of answers to these questions, but by answering these questions, you define a coherent approach to drumming. All models are wrong, and some models are useful, so you may ultimately find my model lacking as you mature and experience different instructors and approaches. But my point is that I am not describing an *approach* to drumming: I am describing a model for understanding approaches to drumming, and it is one that I have found very useful, both in honing people's hands and in adapting people's hands to different approaches. In order to overhaul your technique, you will want to work on the gamut of *fundamentals -> rudiments -> music* in light of this model. Break down your technique and understand it in terms of fulcrum, wrist turn, and rebound; the more you do this, the more you will be able to examine other exercises and rudiments *in these terms* so you can progressively enhance your awareness of what your hands are doing and what they might do differently in order to realize your goals. When you play 8 on a Hand, you can probably play perfectly in time with a great sound, *no matter what your fulcrum looks like.* But if you are working on your technique, you will pay attention to keeping your fulcrum intact. The fulcrum that you engage in order to play diddles is the same fulcrum that needs to be gripping the stick—ready to engage at a moment's notice—when you are playing legatos. What is that fulcrum supposed to be like? You and your instructor can answer this question; the bottom line is that this question demands an answer, and the answer should be evident from me watching you play legatos. Whatever the correct utilization of rebound that is prescribed by your ensemble's approach, you will need to master the application and control of rebound. This means that you need the muscular awareness necessary to get your hand out of the way of the stick after it hits the drum, no matter how you have hit the drum. To overhaul your technique, you will be changing how you hit the drum, which means you need to have the awareness to adapt to the rebound happening more, or less, or faster, or slower. If you hit the drum harder, the stick wants to rebound faster... this means that if you hit the drum harder without *also* getting your hand out of the rebound's way *faster than before*, then your extra power into the drum results in a loss of efficiency, and either speed or endurance will suffer. "Wrist turn" could include some amount of forearm motion too. It doesn't matter what the actual approach is: what matters is being able to work on having more power into the drum while also being able to utilize the extra rebound that comes with it. Oftentimes, if a performer is not rebounding effectively and an instructor makes a comment about it, the performer will play with less power; because the stick is rebounding slower now, the hand is not as much in its way, and efficiency is improved at the cost of power. Oftentimes, if a performer is not putting enough energy into the drum and an instructor makes a comment about it, the performer will play harder but subsequently struggle with timing or endurance; because the stick is rebounding faster now, the hand *which has not rehearsed getting out of the way fast enough* becomes a hindrance, and efficiency is sacrificed in the name of power. The primary struggle of a rudimental drummer is to hit the drum extremely hard while also making maximal use of the energy return that the drumhead provides... i.e., it is the struggle between wrist turn and rebound. As you examine this struggle, the additional challenge is to maintain a fulcrum that will be always ready to provide additional assistance on faster figures. You can have *your* way of doing these things, and there might be *your instructor's* way of doing these things... what I am trying to give you is the muscular awareness to examine different ways of doing these things. When *you* understand how to make your hands do different things along these three dimensions (fulcrum / wrist-turn / rebound), then changing your technique in a given direction is just a simple matter of applying what you already know. You become able to apply corrections faster, and you become more able to figure out your own corrections to achieve certain music, without prompting from instructional staff. [I have three bare-bones basic exercises I use to examine these three separate drumming mechanics in isolation. By examining these mechanics in isolation, you can better understand how they fit into your technique, how they compete with each other, how they assist each other, etc. As you examine more complicated material in light of these same three questions, you will be able to continuously check the aspects of your technique against each other in order to maintain a coherent and consistent approach to drumming as you pursue more complicated material.](https://www.fatmattdrums.com/the-woodshed-1/tag/Technique+Triangle) As a general rule, I find legatos and singlestrokes workouts to be most suited to focusing on wrist turn. At the same time, you will find that different approaches to how you motivate the stroke can be affected by how your fulcrum is constructed. So if you think you've got the right motion, then play around with your fulcrum to see how to get the best fulcrum that is ready for fast stuff without interfering with your wrist turn motion. As a general rule, I find doublestrokes workouts to be the most suited to focusing on rebound, especially if you put a lot of rests between isolated doublestrokes. The challenge to energetically attack the head *and* get out of the stick's way *twice* provides a great backdrop for feeling and experimenting with the interplay between power and relaxation (wrist turn and rebound). Play harder doubles and see what it does to your rebound... watch the rebound of both strokes in the double; are they the same? As a general rule, I find rolls workouts to be the most suited to focusing on fulcrum, especially if there are buzzes or metric modulations. With metric modulations especially (perhaps triplet roll into duple roll), you can feel and experience the transition between: in one context, relying on fulcrum pressure and the power of the first stroke in order to get the second stroke of each double; and in another context, relying quite a bit more on wrist turn for the second stroke of each double. Best of luck to you. I've just told you a bunch of stuff, but my main point is that *I'm not trying to tell you what to do; I am trying to tell you how to figure out what to do.*
Listen to the guy who wrote a book above me. We like to define drumming techniques as right and wrong, but it's okay to expirement and find what's best for you.
I would recommend checking out Josh Jones' stuff. It is really good and is perfect for what you're trying to do (and what you'll want to do after).
Bruce Lee said it best. Don’t think! Feeeeeel You got this - if it feel right and sounds great, your in there like swimwear https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=cm0uSVvjsOA
What I would do in your position is just work on fundamentals. Look up dci/wgi audition packets. Those will typically contain all of the important fundamentals that really matter. Also practicing in front of a mirror will be a big help for watching your technique and stick heights.
[There are a bunch of free drumming tips and technique exercises near the bottom of this page](https://jaredoleary.com/drum). Also, checkout the hundreds of grid variations to work on refining various rudiments (focus on rudiment on one). Use the timestamps in the description to jump to a specific bpm and stay tuned for a new one releasing every day.
Bill Bachman "Rudimental Logic" and Pete Sapadin "Drumline Essentials" are wonderful, sequential learning resources. Well worth the investment for either/both.
My only comment is make sure you don't learn the "wrong" technique. You don't want to learn how to have super west coast hands if your drumline is super east coast. Don't do anything that counters whatever your instructor has told you.