[Monkeypunch]

Hey folks,

I'm a brand new member (found the site looking for some suggestions on traditional grip tips) and had a few questions for people. Some background -

I'm an entirely self-taught drummer and have been playing for 19 years. I've toured and recorded and am pretty much done with that as I'm 38 now and hate life on the road. However, I've played punk rock all these years, and while I still listen to some that I find inovative (The Refused and others), my real passion is jazz.

All these years I've just beat the Hell outta my drums, and not until a few years ago did I find some interest in actually getting some emotion and and subtlety out of my kit. So, it goes without saying that I have a ton of bad habits (poor grip technique, no rudiment training, poor hi-hat foot discipline, etc).

The last year my kit has been in storage, and now she's out and set up and I have all the time in the world to practice. However, I've sworn to use this hiatus to prevent myself from going back to bad habits.

A few years ago I picked up John Riley's 'The Art of Bop Drumming' and am slowly following the exercises in the book. I'm really sticking to the first few pages for the these important first weeks back to my kit though, as I'm a firm believer in slowly building a great foundation. It's a bit frustrating to move so slowly when I know I could just go back to beating on my drums and being quite good at it.

So, basically, I'm looking for a few tips or bits of advice to really get the basics down while eliminating any bad habits.

Traditional grip is a tool I want to learn well, but I find my left arm wanting to do some work instead of my wrist. I've found that laying my hand on my left knee and trying to relax my arm and let my wrist do the work is a decent way to develop a bit of muscle memory in my wrist, and to prevent my elbow from doing the work. Any advice on this tactic? Or any other tips to assist in becoming fluent in traditional grip?

At the moment I'm working on developing a firm triplet groove in my right hand, and being able to keep a light four on the floor beat with my kick, pumping 2s and 4s with my hi-hat, and beating out a light tempo of accents with my snare hand using a traditional grip. If you're familiar with John Riley's book, I'm trying to follow it to a T, and will move on to comping in a few weeks once I get these basics down.

Does anyone have any sagely old wisdom for this old-timer trying to learn some new tricks? Any links to some good youtube videos showing some good exercises? Any help is very much appreciated.

Thanks to all of you in advance!

[Tainojim]

Welcome to the forum Monkeypunch. As for your venture I would like to suggest that you look into Tony Royster Junior. Observe his style and you'll get the beats in order.
Good Luck

[Christopher J]

Hi, and glad you are back. I prefer the Joe Morello Master Series book, and anything he does. There are some nice clips of him with Brubeck and also newer stuff on the net. As for advice, there are as many styles as there are drummers to play them, You had a sucessful career, so you must have things you do well and very well. Build on those, the rest will follow.
Good luck, Christopher J