自強之路

Each time when I riffled my sticks of my routine paradiddle on the pracitce pad, I wondered how to apply it onto the kit fills, just like the one I witnessed agape at Atonbei, a local instrument rental and outlet trading store in Taiwpei City, performed by a young clerk on the ground floor. I was so impressive by the fluency and effortlessness he took on with his adept paradiddle device on the ravishing Roland  TD-9K, at stunning speed of couse. I was also amazed at how poised and consistantly he alternated both his hands swirling above the snare along with the other three tons accompanied with the powerful beats steadily stomped by the right foot in a rock concert manner. I said to myself that this was indeed the very incentive why people practiced the paradiddle like devil.

Recently on YouTube, I've learned some unique paradiddle applications on fills this week by Mike Michalkow, a very amiable, instructive, and creative drummer and teacher. His humous and explicit explaining on drumming skills is among the best, just as excellent as those of Vanz Drumming, another great drummer at the level second to none. I like them very much, and they reveal both dedication and creativity at the same time. After viewing these treasurable educational footages presented by these great teachers. I thus knew clearly the way the young kid at the store had demonstrated. What a paradiddle could be to drumming playing! I'd very much like to share this technique with all of you who are drumoholics.

So sad to find an unrefutable reason to pick up once again my old gadgets only because Bruce seemed not to find his way to be the grizzly. And I just couldn't realise the factor leading to such frustration.

And that's why I have to see thoroughly through the whole system to know the likely gnarls that hinder Bruce's progress. To me, to know such a diligent man with amazing perseverance and commitment only to end up with unknowing and unexpecting fiasco is indeed also a flat fall on my face, which reminds me that I am by no means a good communicator to convey useful info to others efficiently and understandably. Nevertheless, it's no use crying over spilt milk, so what I could do at best in the moment is set up a practical project to trace the possible reasons for Bruce not being able to that 'conductible' to be the polar predator.

 My left hand is still a bit stiff now when practicing Shirley Murphy 123 as well as Egg Beater, especially the former. The main reason for this handicap may be the very likely result from the rigidness of the left hand wrist as well as the muscles of the upper arm and both shoulders. Recently, I reviewed a tutorial DVD from Peter Erskin, a famous jazz drummer and noticed two useful warm-up exercises, which can fix this problem effectively.

One is to play 8 strokes starting from whichever hand and followed by the other, then 7 each, then 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, and 1 each with all the intervals evenly and balanced made, without the accents and the hand switch being noticed, nor the connections. Then add up from 1 back to 8 again. Shift in between nicely and fluently to the speed 200 of a quarter note.

The second is to play singles, doubles, and paradiddles alternately, seamlessly, and evenly. Just in the same way as above, let no leak and accent bewared. Play consistently until an 8 note reaches the tempo in metronome 160. I know these two methods may sound sort of old  school, especially the former introduced by George Gabriel around 1968. 

                        The Practice Routine Generator
                               by www.DrummingSystem.com

This Practice Routine Generator is designed to help get the most out of your practice time. It will help you

Born in Munich in 1988 to a German father and a Japanese mother, Alice Sara Ott received her first piano lessons when she was four and won first prize with distinction in Germany's prestigious “Jugend musiziert" competition at the early age of seven. This was followed by further top prizes and special awards at the Steinway, Grotrian Steinweg, Bach Cöthen and other competitions, including the 4th EPTA (European Piano Teachers Association) International Competition. At the age of 15 she won first prize (the Silvio Bengalli Prize) at the Pianello Val Tidone Competition in Italy as the youngest contestant and with the highest number of points ever given in the competition's history.
Alice Sara Ott has made an unusual speciality of performing Liszt's twelve "Transcendental Etudes" and has already won extraordinary praise for her live performances of the daunting cycle in Germany and Switzerland. Her triumphant recital at Munich's Herkulessaal in January 2007, playing Beethoven's “Waldstein" Sonata and the Liszt Transcendental Etudes, elicited the following extraordinary encomium in the "Süddeutsche Zeitung": “Ott lends a personal, almost overwhelming poetic charm to this splendid music, transporting her listeners into ecstatic delight." In May 2007 at the Ruhr Piano Festival, her performances of Beethoven's “Appassionata" Sonata and the Liszt Etudes met with similar acclaim. Two month later, at the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, she was awarded both the festival's own special prize and the audience prize. In 2008, she made her New York debut, playing a Liszt programme at the Yamaha Artist Center and performed the Liszt Etudes serveral times in Germany and Austria again. In May 2008 she stepped in for Murray Perahia in Basle, playing the “Waldstein" Sonata and the Liszt Transcendental Etudes and again elicited glowing reviews.

It is only natural, then, that Alice Sara Ott has chosen this Himalayan peak of the repertoire for her DG debut. The seeds of this cycle were sown in 1826 in the set of Etudes op.1, an early flexing of Liszt's pianistic muscles. Dedicated to his teacher Carl Czerny, those studies already outstripped him in novelty, adroitness and sparkle. Then in 1838, and in the revised version of 1851, Liszt transformed these rudimentary beginnings into a craggy, fiercely demanding work that, with the exception of Alkan's Etudes opp. 35 and 39, has never been surpassed in difficulty. But if the Transcendental Etudes are Liszt's truest lexicon of technique, his virtuosity was one of poetic response as well as dexterity: the visionary calm of “Paysage", the coruscating fioriture of “Ricordanza" and the massive chord sequences of “Harmonies du soir" are as vital to the cycle's cumulative effect as the heaven-storming onslaught of “Mazeppa" or the profuse and scintillating tracery of “Feux follets". In this sense, Chopin's influence is as important as Paganini's and the final and authentic version of the Transcendental Etudes is an awe-inspiring fusion of poetry and brilliance and one of the stiffest challenges in the entire keyboard literature. Clearly, Alice Sara Ott believes in stiff challenges, as she told Bryce Morrison:

"Angelina"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AhR04kmcSXU&NR=1

Eggbeaters

by Tom Aungst, Vic Firth

Deviled Egg

by Pete Sapadin, Vic Firth

Nice'n Easy
by Zach Schlicher, Vic Firth

Shirley Murphy 1-2-3

by C. Brohard

Book Report

by Casey Brohard, Vic Firth Drummer

DOUBLE PARADIDDLE / TRIPLET ROLL
by Jeff Queen, Vic Firth

Shifting Accents

Paradiddle Pyramid
by Jeff Queen, Vic Firth

Mark Wessels' Rudimental Technique

     Exercise #14: Triplet Diddle

Mark Wessels' Rudimental Technique
     
Exercise #1: Rebound 8's