This ebook, An Alexander Technique Approach to Drum Set (Drums) Technique, is published on this website in a PDF format. It is very detailed and practical, and it will give you the physical tools you need to take the limits off of your ability to create the accurate drums technique you want without sacrificing your body.
This ebook is also for sale on all AMAZON websites in a KINDLE format.
Located in Albuquerque, New Mexico, U.S.A. (MOVEMENT THERAPY)
My experience is that many drum set players believe it is easier to make mistakes, than believe it is easier to play with precision. What if these drums players are wrong, even if the evidence says that they’re all correct?
What I mean by the evidence proving them right, is that many drum set players find making mistakes consistently easy, because they make mistakes easily.
As an Alexander Technique teacher, when I look at the way most people use their bodies on the drum set, many drums players move poorly and wear out their bodies over time. Does this mean poor posture and poor use is easier than good posture and good use on the drum set?
IT IS INCREDIBLY HARD ON YOU EMOTIONALLY TO PLAY THE DRUM SET BELIEVING IT IS DIFFICULT TO PLAY ACCURATELY, THAN TO BELIEVE IT IS EASY TO PLAY WITH PRECISION. This means every time you play, at least at the deepest emotional level, you will approach the drums with fear, if you believe the drum set is a difficult instrument.
So, it seems to me, it is actually incredibly hard to approach the drum set hedging your bets. Hedging your bets means that when you begin to play, you DON’T assume you will play easily and accurately.
I really like challenging drum set players on what they believe. When you go with what many drums players believe, you’re going to find the drum set a struggle to play with ease and accuracy. But what about the drum set prodigies that find the drums easy to play?
In a very perverse way many drum set players find it easier NOT to trust themselves to play with extraordinary ease, so is this going with the flow? What do I mean?
IF IT IS EFFORTLESS TO BELIEVE THE DRUM SET IS DIFFICULT, AND THAT ITS BEST PIECES ARE HARD TO PLAY, THEN YOU ARE EFFORTLESSLY BELIEVING THE DRUMS ARE HARD.
Beliefs and habits based on what many drum set players believe about the drums are pretty unforgiving, when these beliefs and habits make the instrument something to be feared.
Again, what about the drum set prodigies? They have found a way to make the drums easy, and accuracy and interpretation something they do with ease and facility.
So, what is the hardest part of making the drum set a joy to play? Are the drums hard to play, or does it seem incredibly difficult to give up your belief that the instrument is hard to play, given that probably the majority of drum set players frighten each other to death when talking about the best drums pieces?
Look, I understand. As a former concert guitarist, I believed the guitar was an incredibly difficult instrument to play with ease and accuracy. At a certain point in my twenties I realized I was wrong.
IT FINALLY BECAME EASIER FOR ME TO ACCEPT THAT THE CLASSICAL GUITAR COULD BE EASY, THAN TO GO WITH THE MAJORITY OF GUITARISTS I HAD KNOWN, WHO BELIEVED THE GUITAR WAS INCREDIBLY DIFFICULT TO PLAY WONDERFULLY, ACCURATELY, AND MUSICALLY.
