This week I focused on learning and developing my double stroke. This has been really challenging so far, and a bit frustrating to learn on my own. I’m trying to take those feelings into account and use them to inform my teaching process. Due to my experience of frustration I can better understand this learning from a student perspective because I know how it feels now too! It also makes me realize how important it is to have a teacher to help assist in learning these concepts. One day that teacher is going to be me, so it’s a good thing the learning journey is finally starting.

Since my lack of a percussion teacher has proven to be challenging I decided to turn to youtube and see what kind of instructional videos I could find. This particular video, although it focuses on the double stroke roll rudiment, has been extremely useful. They do a great job of teaching their listeners how to break down double strokes.

 

As per the advice of the video I started first with hitting the drum and letting the stick bounce. This helps me to ensure I’m not gripping the stick so tight that it won’t bounce at all. A huge aspect to double strokes is rebound so this is essential. This took a bit of practice to ensure that I was keeping my grip loose enough that the stick could bounce freely.

 

 

My second step in the process was controlling that rebound to only two hits. I let the stick hit twice and then pulled it away. This is still challenging because I am lacking control over the bounce. In the video you can see that my left hand in particular is weak and often wants to bounce three times instead of the desired two. I know this control will come, but at this point it needs more practice on this step.

 

 

My final step was attempting to put the left and right hand together without pauses between each double stroke. This is challenging but I’m trying to not be discouraged, I know it will come but it still needs more practice. There are times in the video when I am getting it (woohoo!) but it still isn’t consistent. My main problem is when I do 3 strokes instead of 2. Again that happens most often in my left hand so I will have to back track and try and develop more control in that hand first.

 

 

This coming week will be largely focused on developing paradiddles. This inquiry is a learning curve, however, so I will have to keep working on developing stick control and double strokes at the same time. Day by day it gets better, I’m just trying to enjoy the process!

 

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