Start Working On Your Technique Today

No matter if you want to check out cool new grooves, work on fill-in ideas or simply play to your favorite music, your technical abilities set the boundaries of what can and what you can not play. This is why you should work on this topic regularly. Your playing technique in general is the foundation of everything you want to play. The way you hit the drums, the way you hold your sticks and basically every motion of your sticks is defined by the technique you use.

A great setting to work on those topics is on a practice pad. While there are no other drums around, it is easier to concentrate on technical exercises without getting distracted from all the orchestration possibilities you have on a whole drum kit. Isolate the motion sequences and analyze every motion of your hands and sticks. Then go back to your drum set and incorporate those elements into your playing. After a while, even new techniques that felt weird in the beginning will become a natural part of your personal style and technique.

One of the most important things to understand when it comes to talking about technique is that every drummer develops his own personal technique and style. Concepts like the moeller technique or the finger control approach work great in different scenarios. So even though you can work on both techniques independently, the trick is to combine both in your playing and intuitively decide which one works best for you in which situaiton. So in the end your overall playing technique will be the combination of different approaches.

Claus Hessler is one of the most sought after educators in the international drumming community and especially known for his outstanding knowledge about technique and rudimental drumming. In his courses on ArtOfDrumming you get an easy entry into the world of technique and in depth insight into foot technique and moeller technique. Those courses will definitely bring your playing to a whole new level.