Throughout my years as a drummer I switched many times between match grip and traditional grip, but I wasn’t introduced to the Moeller Whip until about a year ago.
It’s funny that no matter how many summer camps I went to and instructors that I had – very few of them actually focused on hand technique…. lots of “use your wrist and pinch the stick”, but that is about it.
When I started studying with Kent Aberle, the first thing that he taught me was – loosen your grip and use the natural movement of the stick and wrist. Our entire first lesson was dedicated to nothing but re-learning everything I knew about hand technique…..
“forget about playing rudiments, forget playing to a metronome, you need to work on your whip”.
For weeks, even months I stopped looking at exercises… I put away the metronome (I kinda missed that click for a while) and I did nothing but focus on be loose and relaxed. The work definitely paid off as I can now play faster and more relaxed then I ever did before.
I’m not saying that I have mastered the Moeller Whip, I know I have a long way to go with it… but having someone come in and change the way I was thinking has definitely benefited me.
By the way – if any of you have any tips for practicing the Moeller Whip, I would love to hear about it… Let me know down there in the comments section.
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