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” has become a buzzword for good technique, and many have turned it into an elusive mystery. A Moeller stroke is simply a whip stroke, used for accents, played from the forearm instead of the wrist, but the “Moeller technique” (or “Moeller method”) is an approach involving a whipped accent followed by freely rebounding taps. To delineate the two techniques, I’ll refer to them as the Moeller whip stroke and the Moeller whip-and-flop stroke combination. When using the Moeller whip stroke, the goal is to play purely from the forearm with the wrist completely shut off. The forearm lifts up the hand, which hangs limp, and then the forearm throws down. […]

November 2020 Issue