Wood Chopper strokes is how we all started playing (most likely). We think of them simple as "wrist strokes" nowdays. This is a controlled stroke where the tip of the stick moves up and down with a controlled wrist motion. The stick should move like an axe falling when splitting wood.
Space drops are finger squeezes accompanied by a relaxed fall of the arm into the drum. This is a very bouncy technique with a lot of rebound. When performing the Space Drops very little wrist motion is used. Instead hold the stick inline with your arm (as if you were fencing) angle your arms up at 50-60 degrees keeping a straight line from elbow to tip of stick. This is your maximum 'zero G' position, the place where your arms will want to rebound to between groups of squeezes (see 2s, 3s n 4s). As your arms free fall into the drum relax your grip so the stick will bounce right away upon contact. Now grab and squeeze that rebound with your fingers only (the wrist muscles should not be woring here). Sqeeze a short round (2,3,4) and REBOUND!! This is the fun part. When performing Space Drops you should feel as if your arms are bouncing on a trampoline. Squeeze in groups of 2 for a diddle, 3 for triple stroke rolls and 4 or more for killa singles!
Whip, Tap and Prep.... more on that later.
hands move with pulse, R to L always on beat
singles, doubles, triplets and paraddidles
play in matrix fashion (rows, diagonals, skip lines) to get comfortable mixing up the beats
working on relaxed stroke and fingers with fluid and rebounding 'drop/squeeze' motions
stroke types here
AKA Diddles: performed with our rebounding space drop strokes.
perform using whip strokes - cloning the hands, then isolating each
Moeller Whip Groupings
use whip strokes, hands together to clone, hands separate to observe progress
under construction
Moeller Whip Groupings with Tap Fills
coming soon
