It has been some time since I last posted here. Plenty has happened, good, bad and ugly. I finished recording the drum tracks to our originals and I am really stoked about the songs Woody wrote. I think people will quite enjoy listening to them. The name of the band changed - we are now calling ourselves 'Shoot the Moon' - and we are getting ready for our next show on February 9th at Joyland Beach Community Centre. We encourage everyone to show up and help the local girls soccer team travel to Wales for an International tournament. All proceeds from the show, silent auction and raffles will go towards the travel expenses. Get more info here: Rockin' for the Rockets.
On the farm, the hay shortage is causing concern. We are constantly looking for decent hay at a reasonable price. Unfortunately, we are having to bring it in from distant sources, which is increasing the price significantly. We found a seller in Western Quebec (near Gatineau) who was selling reasonably priced hay, but transport costs could be prohibitive (6 hours away). The seller knew a trucker who was picking up a load in our area and would bring the hay at a reduced cost - Brilliant! After agreeing to the costs with the trucker we left it to him to arrange the loading of hay with the seller and scheduling the delivery with us. A few days later we learned the the flatbed was at the farm and loaded, however it was not tied down because the seller had pneumonia and had to rest for a day before he could strap it. The next day we received a call to say the tractor-trailer load had left the farm, but it was stuck on a hill about 1 km away. The temperature at night was about -30c, making it difficult for the operators to hook up tow trucks. The Trailer was left on the hill (blocking a neighbours driveway) for the night so they could get some rest and have a fresh start in the morning. The next morning, they found that the air-brake lines had frozen on the trailer, making it impossible to tow it up the hill again. The day after that, we heard that they finally managed to get the trailer off the hill, but damaged the truck pulling it in the process when one of the chains on the tires broke. 3 days after that, we are still waiting for the hay to arrive, but have been promised tomorrow however that is starting to look unlikely due to the freezing rain warning in effect. We do need the hay, but not so desperately that we can't wait a few days, We just feel bad for the poor trucker who lost at least as much money as we are paying him in extracting the trailer and repairing the truck.
Meanwhile, on the topic of drumming, I have been perusing the Internet searching the subject of drumming and came accross Jojo Mayer teaching stick and foot techniques. Two of the most popular stick control and speed concepts are named Moeller and Gladstone techniques.
I have been using the Moeller sticking for a long time (but never knew it had a name). It uses arm motion and stick bounce in a kind of whipping motion to increase double and triplet speeds. Dave Weckl provides a great video to show the movement of the arm and stick here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QFZfOLbnBwI.
The Gladstone technique works differently in that it is a drop and bounce, rather than the whipping motion that Moeller users. As it turns out, it is basically the motion and control I came up with in my previous post. Use the wrist to drop the stick onto the skin and then control the bounce with your fingers. Using JoJo Mayers video I will be practicing the technique as much as possible. See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUz7WH50AqQ.
What I am teaching my arm and fingers to do is to drop the stick with my wrist, then bounce the stick with my fingers. For speed I want to bounce the stick sequentially with my pinky first, then ring finger, then middle finger. That would end up being a four-stroke roll. When I started, I could do a four-stroke roll at about 95 bpm. In two weeks of practice and exercise I am up to 129bpm.
The exercises I found were to place my hands on a table and tap each finger four times in a row. Another is to hold the stick with my normal grip but the stick is vertical. I tap the bottom of the stick against the outside of my leg using my pinky, ring and middle fingers. It is building up strength and stamina in the fingers.
