Become a Master Jazz Drummer- Secrets to a faster, stronger left hand 

Milovan, welcome to the channel! Glad to have you here. We were in New York when Naked City was happening. It hugely influenced the hole scene there. With your desire to adapt into traditional grip, don't worry right now about those goals you have (which are great). Your entire arm platform, from shoulder, upper arm, forearm, wrist, and hand, has got to get reoriented first. Very importantly, so too does your brain, as it's different circuits being used since it's going from a symmetrical movement between the arms to an asymmetrical one. What you should do daily now is at a slow to medium tempo just practice repeating quarter notes with each of the techniques in the video, one technique at a time. Observe your left hand as you do this to make sure it's doing what the video shows. Additionally, strengthen your thumb and forearm connection by playing repeated full strokes with an open hand with the stick in the thumb hinge (fulcrum). Rotate from the forearm. That exercise is the beginning of trad grip. Yes, we'll be putting out more on the left hand. Stay with us. Our philosophy is our weekly videos add up to an infinite video drum technique "book".

Mark, thanks for adding us to your mix. So glad you enjoyed the video. Any other areas of Jazz drumming you'd love videos about, let us know and we'll do our best to make 'em for you.

Thanks, Andy! That is our goal, and it's great to hear we're achieving it!

Sure thing, Noris! Really psyched the video helped! Keep coming back to the channel for more!

Love pipe bands! Great tradition, and, yes, I've seen older players play traditional and new playing matched. Don't see how matched will help play in that setting. Keep on looking back to us for more traditional grip vids in the coming weeks. We'll have one out specifically on how to practice to be able to play consistently great. If you have any of your pipe band stuff, post some links here. Cheers.

: ) Keep working the left hand, and the other limbs too! Onward and upward, always.

@@JohnHvastaDrums I worked the pad for a couple of hours yesterday and I believe that I have made some serious progress with time and speed and I will continue on until the brain and the muscle memory smoothly coordinate. Thanks and Blessings Drum Brother!

Right on, brother! Keep it up and you'll see amazing progress!

Thank you!

You are welcome. Glad it helped!

Awesome, Noah! Hope it helps you!

You gotta strengthen your forearm! And make sure you employ your thumb in moving and controlling the stick. Like any work out, if it's unproductive pain, rest and come back to it. But sometimes fatigue is best worked through. Only you know the difference since it's your arm. I suggest setting up some lessons to make sure you have the right approach to gaining the strength and mastering the proper forms of movement. email to set up a lesson: johnghvasta@gmail.com

Will, you are spot on! I got to chat with Louie a couple of times, and he was just beautiful with his wisdom and presented it in a way that you couldn't help but carry it with you in your bones. John and I talk about your uncle Ed as one of the true greats. Really spectacular player with fabulous ways of approaching the drums. Maybe we can connect with you by Zoom sometime and record an interview if you're into that idea.

@@JohnHvastaDrums yes we can arrange a time after the new year..I'm moving to vt ..so maybe mid jan or thereafter... Would be fun to talk nuances of jazz drumming ..history and legends .

@Will Shaughnessy When you're up for shooting that interview, shoot me an email at illegaldrumming@gmail.com and we'll make it happen! Welcome to VT! I live in the state, and John's a few hours away in NY. Perhaps we'll all get together sometime and play.

@@JohnHvastaDrums looking fwd to the chat I.gave vt the nix ..im.back.in .the Rockies ..

Awesome! Glad to be here to help!

Exactly! All the way around we're individuals and the key is very much to get to know the mechanics of our particular body and apply it to the sound, feel, and chops that are important to our uniqueness. Imitate to learn if you must, but ultimately find and be yourself.

Freddie had a slightly different approach to it, and John developed his independent of Freddie because of revelations he had in his lessons with Jim Chapin. But, yes, indeed, Freddie did change Weckl's and a lot of others' way of playing doubles for the better. BTW, check out our slow motion version video of the left hand techniques we're posting tomorrow (Monday December 20th). You can really get into the finer points of the different techniques.

@@JohnHvastaDrums thank you. Looking forward to your new video.

: )

So glad you're so involved in the lessons! The kind of detailed viewing and questions you bring show you're serious about mastery, and that's phenomenal! Yes, definitely focus on the thumb! It's overlooked too often, and it's an amazing and versatile lever for so much! Keep at it and you'll get it!

Hey Ray, you can email johnghvasta@gmail.com.

The key is to not rely on bounce. Use your forearm (not wrist, forearm! Your wrist doesn't move at all if you're moving properly in traditional grip. It can't. Hold your forearm really tightly and try to move your wrist in that position and you'll see.). And use your thumb and each of your fingers except the pinky (which just goes along beneath the wring finger to support it). Really study the way each finger and different combinations of them can be used to manipulate and control the stick. I mean really study it, get to know it, day after day, get super curious with it. Practice a lot first with your hand open and the stick nestled in your thumb fulcrum. You gotta strengthen the forearm to support the stick movement in both directions. Not just down. No bounce! Move the stick down and back up and down and up. Practice at different slow, medium, and faster tempos until you get that forearm movement. Then add the thumb wiggle and other fingers and experiment with them at slower, medium, and faster tempos. Watch John's hands in the video. Make sure you're forearm and hand are aligned in the open position and you're moving out, not in on singles, and out to in and back on doubles and not the reverse. Hope this helps. If you need more help with it after doing the above I'd suggest scheduling a lesson with John through the website. www.JohnHvastaDrums.com

Ring finger : )

Ian, so glad you asked these questions. It's not actually rubato. It's not with a click, but there is a consistent pulse. It can feel rubato, though because it's Jazz so a little laid back. But also because John's playing 3, 5, and 7 note combinations accented sometimes on and sometimes off the felt downbeat, which is actually how old Jazz cats used to train vocalists who had no feel to come in correctly. As far as the mechanics go, this might be a frustrating answer, but it's really important. The key to getting the mechanics is not to watch the hands too closely. Listen as he's talking about each of the mechanics and see if you can pick out the sound each of the mechanics produces. Treat it like if you're listening to a drum track and you really want to learn by ear not just what the rhythms and surfaces are that the drummer's playing but also what sounds the drummer is producing. Then you'd have to head to your kit and experiment with your movements until you got to the "aha" moment of getting the sound. This ain't easy, but the level of minute ear training and sensitivity you gain, and getting that tied directly into your hands (and feet) as the translators, is invaluable. That said, John will be doing more vids on this stuff so you'll also have a chance to get more granular with them. I gotta say also that I've been studying with John for 35 years. Last year I finally allowed him to convince me to adopt traditional grip. John's lessons with me have been phenomenal on traditional grip, and I'm in the studio nightly getting to know these mechanics minutely. It's literally life changing. Nothing beats some one-to-one lessons, and you may want to go that direction with John to get further into this. Spectacular teacher.

Ian, wanted to let you know we're posting the left hadn't techniques in slow motion tomorrow (Monday December 20th). I think this will help you considerably with all the mechanics and techniques. Hope it helps. Let us know.

Hey Chris, this video will show you. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-_-LfO26sCyQ.html

Tim, we've gotten a few requests to do some slow-motion sections, and we'll do that in future vids. For accents experiment with accenting by moving your thumb down into the stick. Then experiment with flicking your wrist (forearm is what actually rotates, but I say wrist since that's how you might think of the movement at first) out (away from your body). These only require small movements, so ultimately aim for those but if you gotta be bigger and clumsy about it for a bit, that's natural. Just diligently and systematically study how to make the smallest, while powerfully accented, movements in that regard. Really take a scientific "field study" of your hand, thumb, and forearm mechanics.

@@JohnHvastaDrums Okay thanks, but I think people would be interested in a full lesson on finger technique and how your approach relates to famous techniques like Moeller. Greetings from Germany

We'll make that happen for you, Tim.

@@JohnHvastaDrums looking forward to it. Important topic.👍😀

Check out our next video coming out tomorrow (Monday December 20th). Same left hand techniques but slowed down. Since you and some others asked, we wanted to be sure to put this one out ASAP.

I'm assuming you're asking for some slow motion on the hand, which we can and will make happen in future vids. Just want to be sure that's what you mean, or are you talking about going at a slower pace in explaining things? Thanks for asking. That's how we know how best to be of help.

Check out our next video coming out tomorrow (Monday December 20th). Same left hand techniques but slowed down. Since you and some others asked, we wanted to be sure to put this one out ASAP.

Jazz players who may have great feel can feel limited in the range of their expression by lacking speed. Definitely, in any genre except showing off speed in and of itself is a poor choice to go after. But if you feel hemmed in with the range of your expression in Jazz then your feel will suffer from that constraining factor. Also, for gigging and session drummers, speed is vital (as is great feel, of course) in case a band is asking you to play up tempo. We're doing videos every week on all sorts of Jazz drumming approaches. Speed's just one of them. But your point is well taken, especially since drummers do tend to gravitate towards speed as a measure of excellence and perhaps would be better to focus on feel (and sound and articulation) above speed should they have to choose.