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Bill Bachman

Modern Drummer is the world’s most widely read drum magazine, is dedicated entirely to the art of drumming and caters to the needs of amateur, semi-pro, and professional drummers.

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Stick Technique Revisited

Many drum instructors say, “Play naturally.” The problem with that statement is that we naturally hold on to things tightly. Have you ever seen someone pick up a drumstick for the first time and play smooth rebounding strokes? Great technique…

Modern Drummer
Nov 1, 2020

Stick Technique Revisited

Part 5: The Moeller Whip Stroke The Moeller whip stroke is named after Sanford “Gus” Moeller, a famous teacher from the early 1900s who became known for teaching a whipping motion used by Civil War drummers. In recent years, “Moeller”…

Modern Drummer
Oct 1, 2020

Stick Technique Revisited

Part 4: Alley-Oop The alley-oop technique is what I call a wrist/finger combination used for playing double strokes (diddles) and triple strokes. While it can be likened to the push/pull technique, which is a wrist stroke followed by a finger…

Modern Drummer
Sep 1, 2020

Stick Technique Revisited

Part 3: Downstrokes, Taps, and Upstrokes If we used only free strokes, our playing would become pretty dull, since every note would be played at the same stick height and dynamic level. In order to add accents and dynamic contour…

Modern Drummer
Aug 1, 2020

Bill Bachman

Bill Bachman is a world-renowned educator with twenty-five... TO READ THE FULL STORY: SUBSCRIBE TO ACCESS LOG IN

Modern Drummer
Aug 1, 2020
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Stick Technique Revisited

Part 2: The Free Stroke The free stroke, which is also commonly referred to as the full stroke, rebound stroke, or legato stroke, is the most important technique you should learn, as it’s the foundation for almost every other stroke…

Modern Drummer
Jul 9, 2020

Stick Technique Revisited

Part 1: Matched Grip Matched grip simply means that the hands hold the sticks in a mirror image of one another. There are important variations within matched grip, however, both in terms of the hand angles and fulcrums (pivot points)…

Modern Drummer
Jun 3, 2020

Technique Vs. Musicality Remove Yourself and Let Nature Guide You

A lot of drummers like to pit technique and musicality against each other as if they’re polar opposites. But they’re actually very closely related. TO READ THE FULL STORY: SUBSCRIBE TO ACCESS LOG IN

Bill Bachman
May 1, 2020

Eights And Sixes

We’re going to build upon the Eights and Sixes exercise that I introduced in Part 1 of this series by adding double strokes and rimshots into the routine.

by Bill Bachman
Feb 27, 2019

Velocity and Energy Shifters

8th-Note Paradiddle Transitions

by Bill Bachman
Nov 30, 2017

Flowing Diddles, Triple Strokes, and Paradiddles

Essential Motions for Smoother Transitions

by Bill Bachman
Oct 31, 2017

Strictly Technique - Consecutive Flams

In part two of this series, we’re going to take out the taps between the flams so that the flams are adjacent. When you do that, the challenge becomes playing the consecutive flams with consistent grace-note placement and sound quality.…

Bill Bachman
Feb 23, 2017
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Strictly Technique - Consecutive Flams part 3: Inverted Motion

In the third installment of this series, we’re going to modify the exercise by removing one tap from the transitions. Instead of using a flam accent to shift from one hand to the next, we’ll use an inverted flam tap.…

Bill Bachman
Feb 23, 2017

Pataflafla Builder - Exercises for Developing a Challenging Yet Musical Rudiment

One of the most beneficial of the forty PAS rudiments is the pataflafla. It’s one of the few where each hand plays a totally different part. The leading hand uses what I call the Moeller whip-and-stop technique, and the secondary…

Bill Bachman
Feb 23, 2017
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