– Hi, Bruce Becker
here from Los Angeles. I'm up here at Drumeo,
and I've been working on a very special course. And I've been
teaching for 36 years, and some of the drum
students that I've had through my years of teaching
have been drummers like Mark Schulman, Daniel
Glass and early Glen Sobel. And I've been currently
teaching Tris Imboden, David Garibaldi and Bryan
Head, Burleigh Drummond, and a whole host
of other drummers. It's a great place to be. And we were talking up here
about some of the differences that we see in drummers
in their development. In my place of observation,
I see a lot of guys who just hold onto
that stick desperately and have trouble letting
go and finding the flow, whether it's from beat to
fill or whatever it is, they're feeling
some blockage there.
So I'm really keen about
choreographing movement and adding some flavor of
letting go of our anatomy in a very natural way. So let me demonstrate
something specifically. What I oftentimes see
younger guys do, older guys, it doesn't really matter,
it's just guys in general, is holding onto that
stick and just pushing it to the tom. So I'm gonna play a
paradiddle, make it real easy, and I will play the
downbeats on the toms. So here it is, a
slow paradiddle.
(drumming) They may feel some
tension or resistance to get over to the tom. So what I want to demonstrate
is that if we have a clearcut choreographed
move, we can really access a better fluidity. So watch how I do this. I'm gonna speak out clearly. What is the movement of
the single paradiddle? Well, for this, I'm
gonna put a downstroke, I'm gonna come up on the
second note, so the right. Left would be upstroke,
down, down or tap, tap, downstroke on the tom, upstroke
right hand, left, left. Let me demonstrate
so you can see clear, instead of me rambling on. Check this out. (drumming) (faster drumming) (slower drumming) (faster drumming) (slower drumming) Notice as I'm playing that,
that there's a lift and drop, and as I get faster, of course
my movement becomes more, what do I want to say, lateral,
as opposed to elliptical.
And that's basically
tapping into the movement. Notice as well that I
was releasing my wrist and I have an easy access
to the hinge in my elbow. Those are key components to
adding fluidity to your playing. So let me demonstrate
once again, and we're gonna put
this to a click, and we'll add a little
depth of slowing it down so you can see how
this movement works. And watch very carefully. See if this adds to the
quality of what you do when you're playing. One, two, one, two, three. (fast drumming) (slower drumming) (faster drumming) Now let me try it at 120 bpm
and try to put myself into holding onto the
stick a little tighter and maybe see some of the
struggles that I might encounter as I do that without letting go. 120 bpm, check it out. One, two, one, two, three, four.
(fast drumming) (slower drumming) (faster drumming) Now you can see that I'm
holding onto the stick a lot tighter and I'm quite
tight in my whole approach. That's generally what I see. In the seat of observation
in my teaching practice, that's the role I play. I sit back as the coach and
observe and see what's going on, and try to open up an avenue
of fluidity for everybody. And again, the height of
that is really addressing the choreographed movement
that you can get into. That topic, as well as many
others, are covered extensively in the course that I
just built for Drumeo.
So click the link below
to get more information. I'd like to be your
personal drum coach. I hope to see you in 2018. Bruce Becker here from
Drumeo headquarters, saying, "Peace." (beeps) Don't bloop me too bad, man. – [Man Off Camera] No, no, no. (beeps) – And getting in harmony
with the ana-da-dee. (beeps) Hi, Bruce Becker here. I'm a drum teacher up from
Los Angeles, up here, and ah. Up here, up here, up here,
up-bup-bup-bup-bup-bup-bup-bup. (beeps) Hi, Bruce Becker here,
up here at Drumeo. Up here, up here,
up here, one more. (beeps) Hi, Bruce Becker here. I'm here at Drumeo Stu,
ah, Bruce Becker here. I'm here at… (beeps) Hi, Bruce Becker. I'm a drum teacher
from Los Angeles. Ah, no, I don't
like that either. (beeps) – [Man Off Camera] 'Cause
you had like five in a row where you're like, "Hey,
Bruce Becker here," and all that stuff.
(laughs) (beeps) – This is one of the spe-fi, (blabbers) Okay. (beeps) I'm not hip to the lingo. (beeps) That's one of, no. (mumbles) (beeps) Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. (blabbers) Loosen up, yeah, loosen up. (beeps) I need to work on
my choreographing of my articulation. (beeps) And Bruce Becker here from
Drumeo, saying, "Peace." That sucked. ♪ Hello darkness my old friend ♪ (beeps) (upbeat instrumental music).