The Moeller Method, to most, is a secret technique that hard to find any information on these days. Let’s break that secret and explain the technique in detail, uncovering the reason why this method is used by every professional drummer around! Learning how to play the Moeller Technique is actually quite easy, and will benefit your drumming immediately after learning it. The Moeller Method will increase your stick speed, control, and power in no time at all! Practicing your rudiments with the Moeller Method will be a breeze once you master this concept! Let’s get started.
The first and foremost important aspect to using the Moeller Method is using proper stick grip. I will not go into details here, but make sure you have the correct grip by reading this short How To lesson on stick grip. Basically, with the wrong grip this method is useless. When you find the right grip for you, find the fulcrum point on the stick. This is also known as the balancing point. To do this, rest the stick on your finger at various points of the stick. Bounce the stick off your drum. The point in which you get the most bounces is your fulcrum point. Grip the stick here. This is vital in performing the Moeller Method.
The Moeller Method utilizes stick bounce. So the trick to this technique is getting the most bounces from one stroke. The first stroke to the Moeller method we should learn is the full stroke. Raise your stick to about shoulder height, and drop your arm. This will cause a whipping like motion on your wrist and give you a solid powerful stroke on the drum. This whipping motion with your wrist is very important. Make sure you take note of the motion of your wrist. It is like you are cracking a whip. Practice this motion a lot, the more power you can get from this motion the more effective this method will be.
Breaking this technique down, we get a few different strokes. The bounce or tap stroke is the next stroke to learn. This is a small tap that you hit with the stick with barely any force at all. When you play this after the full stroke it will almost be like a bounce. This tap stroke should be lower in volume, but still audible. Practice this on both hands. The stick should start 1 – 2 inches from the drum and end 1 – 3 inches from the drum.
The last stroke you need to learn is the pull stroke. It is stroke you do after the tap stroke. You tap the stick on the drum like the tap, however immediately after that you raise your stick back to shoulder height. Back to the same starting position as the Full stroke. This stroke should be lower volume like the tap stroke. Again, practice these strokes with both hands.
Now what you have just learnt is a bunch of useless strokes right? Well that is not the case. Put all of these strokes together and you get a fluent motion. It may sound hard to believe, however this is how the Moeller method works. Full stroke, tap stroke, pull stroke. By the time you are back at the full stroke position, start over again (in the right time of course). Eventually you want to create a roll with your one hand playing three hits. Try and get the most rebound from your first stroke, and let the 2 other strokes bounce off the drum. By the time the last stroke has hit, pull your arm back up to the starting position and whip your stick down again.
Believe it or not, this method is very popular. When you use it correctly, you will be able to play faster then you ever thought imaginable. Think of it as playing 3 times as fast as you normally play, because you get 3 strokes for every one hit on the drum. Amazing eh? And it doesn’t stop there. I have heard drummers play with 4, 5 and even 8 strokes for every one hit. The possibilities are endless. Truly now you know the importance of learning this method if you are interested in improve your drumming skill dramatically! The best way to learn this method is by picking up Mike Michalkows Moeller Method Secrets DVD. This DVD is packed with 2.5 hours of instructional, breaking the Moeller Method down step by step, and showing you how to use it in your day to day beats.
Learn how to play the moeller method with the Moeller Method Secrets Pack with Mike Michalkow.