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Thread: Finger Technique

  1. #1

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    As I really want to increase my speed I have been focusing on finger technique. Can I practice using fingers with the palms of my hand facing down or is it better to have my palms turned sideways?

  2. #2

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    If you're a beginning drummer, I wouldn't practice finger technique. In my opinion, it's an advanced exercise that should only be practiced after you have superior wrist development and have built up considerable speed for the other major rudiments.

  3. #3

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    Quote Originally Posted by drummer View Post
    If you're a beginning drummer, I wouldn't practice finger technique. In my opinion, it's an advanced exercise that should only be practiced after you have superior wrist development and have built up considerable speed for the other major rudiments.
    +1

    Develop the wrists first. In the process of developing wrist speed and control (i.e. all the major rudiments at various tempos with consistent tone and volume) develops a whole set of very important foundational skills. Jumping to finger technique without developing the wrists is not advisable, it would be like building a balcony with no house to put it on.

    That being said, if your wrists are solid and you've already done a lot of wrist technique work, I'd recommend working on the fingers with your palms facing the way that they normally do when you play. That makes it easier to incorporate your finger control in to your playing. For me, that's palms down.
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  4. #4

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    I respectfully disagree with Tom and dt344.

    I went over to my set and played for a while with just wrists. Difficult to do, for me, after all these years.

    Anyway, what I found was that my speed, dexterity, ability to move around the set, was cut by at least 50%.

    Your fingers are going to come into play whether you want them to or not. If you do just play with your wrists, then the arms come into play, which takes away some (a lot) of your speed.

    From my experience, it's wrists and fingers, the arms just move you from drum to drum.

  5. #5

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    Quote Originally Posted by rickthedrummer View Post

    Your fingers are going to come into play whether you want them to or not. If you do just play with your wrists, then the arms come into play, which takes away some (a lot) of your speed.

    From my experience, it's wrists and fingers, the arms just move you from drum to drum.
    I 100% agree with you. But if I have a beginning drummer, I always teach them that as far as technique is concerned, to start with the wrists first and then the fingers second. The reason being that when you're doing exercises from the wrist, you're primarily developing your resting grip, tone, and aim. You're correct that the sound of a developed drummer comes only slightly from the wrists and arms and mostly from the hands, but I would never start a brand-new drummer on finger exercises until the grip and basic wrist movements had some basic foundation
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  6. #6

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    Quote Originally Posted by dt344 View Post
    I 100% agree with you. But if I have a beginning drummer, I always teach them that as far as technique is concerned, to start with the wrists first and then the fingers second. The reason being that when you're doing exercises from the wrist, you're primarily developing your resting grip, tone, and aim. You're correct that the sound of a developed drummer comes only slightly from the wrists and arms and mostly from the hands, but I would never start a brand-new drummer on finger exercises until the grip and basic wrist movements had some basic foundation

    Being as I started with Traditional grip, fingers are a integral part of that.

    It's probably why I look at it that way.

  7. #7

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    Palms sideways. Bill Bachman's got a great vid on YouTube about French grip technique. Go check it out.

  8. #8

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    Quote Originally Posted by EyePea View Post
    Palms sideways. Bill Bachman's got a great vid on YouTube about French grip technique. Go check it out.
    +1

    I use french grip. Your thumbs are on the top of the stick. You hold the stick with your index and thumb, and the other fingers are what moves the stick. For me, it's only the middle finger. French grip lets you get around the kit faster too.

    A way you can practice this is by holding the stick by the end. Then you move the stick only with your fingers so that the other end hits the bottom of your arm.
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  9. #9

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    Quote Originally Posted by FlyByNight View Post
    +1

    I use french grip. Your thumbs are on the top of the stick. You hold the stick with your index and thumb, and the other fingers are what moves the stick. For me, it's only the middle finger. French grip lets you get around the kit faster too.

    A way you can practice this is by holding the stick by the end. Then you move the stick only with your fingers so that the other end hits the bottom of your arm.
    Just last saturday my teacher showed me this lol thanks

  10. #10

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    I'll give the compromise answer:

    Yes, it's true, if you start with finger technique it's a bit jumping hte gun, I'd say more like filling up the downstairs before you've put on the roof.

    However, I also think that good technique is something that takes years to develop, something that the sooner you start, the sooner you have developed the right habits. I say this because I'm now going back and working on this, and I could've done this easily a year ago (when i was an upper-intermediate beginner)

    So, my suggestion is to dedicate 10-25% of your practice with rudiments to it. One thing your teacher might have told you is that your stronger hand will be better at it, so what you can do to practice is have both hands play at the same time (say 8ths or trips)so your weaker hand copies the stronger.
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  11. #11

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    I feel fingers play a huge part when diddles and such come into play. I know when I play doubles (how I was shown at least), I throw the stick down and pull it back with my fingers. As the double gets faster I close it up until it's almost a press essentially. As I understand it, military/marching drummers use only wrist in their rolls.

  12. #12

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    The reason you use your wrists is to get the energy to get your sticks moving and also learn how to strike the drum. You want to develop a whipping motion, you don't hit drum heads. Once you have energy and momentum going, if you choose to use your fingers, by manipulating the momentum and getting your sticks to bounce. You will get speed, you end up using less energy and you can get creative by using combinations of singles and double. In the beginning you can do simple combination arrangements, after awhile your hands go on auto pilot and play what you happened to be feeling at the time.

  13. #13

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    Quote Originally Posted by Jackie View Post
    The reason you use your wrists is to get the energy to get your sticks moving and also learn how to strike the drum. You want to develop a whipping motion, you don't hit drum heads. Once you have energy and momentum going, if you choose to use your fingers, by manipulating the momentum and getting your sticks to bounce. You will get speed, you end up using less energy and you can get creative by using combinations of singles and double. In the beginning you can do simple combination arrangements, after awhile your hands go on auto pilot and play what you happened to be feeling at the time.
    I noticed this whipping motion while looking at my hands in the mirror especially when i practice my doubles on a pillow

  14. #14

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    also by fingers you absorb some of the shock of striking the drum repeatedly. If you were to grip the sticks fairly tight and use only wrists, I would think you could do some physical damage or injury.

    all the best...

  15. #15

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    According to Thomas Lang use fingers for snare playing, wrists for toms(loose heads=less rebound). I suppose if your toms are tightly tuned you could use your fingers.
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  16. #16

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    Quote Originally Posted by slinglander View Post
    According to Thomas Lang use fingers for snare playing, wrists for toms(loose heads=less rebound). I suppose if your toms are tightly tuned you could use your fingers.

    I just watched a couple of Lang's solos. He uses his fingers on the toms.

    I'm not knocking it, I like to watch Lang play. The guy is a showman to the nth degree.

    If the heads on the toms are loose, seems to me that you would need your fingers to help get the rebound.

    I tried it today. Rolling from the snare to the up tom, back to the snare, then to the FT. Going from fingers on the snare to just wrists on the toms. Awkward to say the least, but, I guess if one worked on it, one would become more comfortable with it. I just fail to see the purpose.

    Over the years, I've seen a ton of drummers. More than a few that were famous, and more than a few of them with books or DVD's out. One thing I noticed was that, most of the time, they didn't practice what they preached.

  17. #17

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    [QUOTE=rickthedrummer;652319 One thing I noticed was that, most of the time, they didn't practice what they preached.[/QUOTE]

    Yup, I came to the same conclusion Rick.

  18. #18

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    Quote Originally Posted by drummer View Post
    Yup, I came to the same conclusion Rick.


    Sell the books, DVD's, etc. Take the money.

  19. #19

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    You use your fingers if you want to on all your drums, not just the snare. What does sound good on toms is not so much using your wrists but playing solid single strokes which bring out the full resonace (sound) of the toms. You can use doubles on the toms, but the singles seem to project the sound better.

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