by mark wessels
To Moeller or Not to Moeller?
December 10, 2009 10:03 am in Marching by mark wessels
This article is more of a question than it is a point of view. I do have my opinion, but I’d like to get as much feedback from the rudimental community as possible. The topic concerns whether you teach the Moeller motion to beginning “band” students.
I’m filming some instructional video for the basic rudiments – for use in my snare drum book and new drumset book. The videos will come from both perspectives: the beginning ‘band’ student (who, one would suppose would eventually play in a typical “corps style” drumline) and the beginning drumset player (who may – but most likely WILL NOT be a part of a school band situation).
At the point where I discuss the “upstroke” in an accented Paradiddle, I described both methods:
Moeller Motion:
Starting with the stick close to the drum, the wrist breaks up while the tap is being played. The upward motion leads with the wrist – and the stick follows. The arm moves to the vertical position before the hand/stick “catches up”. (This is for a full stroke. Obviously, for faster tempi, the motion is not as exaggerated.)
“Stick Led Motion”
(Not sure what else to call it, so I’ll just name it unless someone has a better term for it)
Starting with the stick close to the drum, play a soft tap with the wrist in a slight downward motion. The upward motion is led by the tip of the stick. The wrist follows the stick to the vertical position, with only a small amount of forearm movement (at most 45º from horizontal).
Without getting too technical or confusing (because the video is aimed at beginners), I stated, “If you are primarily a drumset player, do this…(Moeller motion)” – and “If you’re eventually going to play in a drumline, do this… (Stick Led Motion)”.
Is that too anal?
I’ve always believed strongly that all the motions should be exaggerated in the beginning. And I always taught the “stick led” motion to my beginners in the school band – because that’s the technique we used in high school (and what I have seen from almost every drum corps, college, wgi, & high school around the country, except for maybe SCV). If an exaggerated Moeller motion were taught from the beginning, I would guess that you’d have to spend some time getting the students to limit their arm motion later.
For the drumset player, it would make no sense to learn the “stick led” upstroke motion.
Of course, there will be two schools of thought on how best to play a marching drum. Moeller is a very efficient motion for playing drums – but almost has no direct application to keyboard (which I’ve always taught as a “piston stroke”). So, for the sake of argument, I think I’m right to draw a line between “drumset players” and “school band students”.
But I’d love to be proven wrong. :0)
What are your opinions? Which motion do you use to start your students?
Great article! Dom Famularo refers to this as “informal” versus “formal” technique. I believe that it’s important to learn both.
This is an awesome topic! Moeller technique tends to get a bad reputation among some drum corps snare drummers, but I rarely hear good explanations why they rule it out. If it sounds good, looks good, and feels good, then why not?
I think the idea that it is harder to get a drumline to look alike when they use a Moeller approach is a myth. There will always be visual discrepancies between players no matter which stroke is most often employed. That is why we the educators are there to step in and TEACH.
Also, it is almost always most advantageous to cultivate a variety of techniques and approaches, regardless of whether your craft is snare drumming, powerlifting, or French cooking. More tools, more options, a wider vocabulary, and a more comprehensive knowledge of your trade. All good things!
Thanks for reading. And also thanks to everyone else for posting on this–I’ve learned a lot from your ideas.
-Chris
I wholeheartedly agree with you Chris!
At UVA, Chris Garay and I teach multiple techniques in a stand-alone way, then encourage bleed over as the musical setting dictates. We try to isolate fulcrums and lever arms from the shoulder to the fingertips and then combine them. We call it developing the “five gears” or the “soft machine”. Last season, we had less experience in the line and we focused primarily on the velocity or free stroke and control stroke that Murray has utilized with SCV. This year, we are adding more of the Moeller technique since some of our quicker 16th note and 24th note singles sections will benefit from the efficiency of the multiple beats/single motion that the Moeller approach offers. In the end, we think that the application of techniques should not be so rigid and that some playing requires a “little more Moeller” or a little more “velocity” and there is not a definite stop and start to a given technique. This was something I promoted with Hannum’s blessing back in 83 and 84 with the Cadets. The basic premis is that music is dynamic and the technique must adjust per the musical setting. The transitions should be fluid, just like the music. We believe that the one constant to 99% of it all is relaxation and letting the sticks breathe and do most of the work.
Great subject and everyone has answered the question. It all depends of the speed of the piece and the desired sound and look. Everyone should know both ways of playing as they are both great and one can’t exist without the other as they cross paths in pursuit of speed and execution.
On another note this the new site is amazing and the fact that i/anyone gets to join in this discussion with the people i look up to and who’s articles and videos i pour over is just awesome!!! Top work Vic!!
Mark, I’m very excited for the new videos. My students use your videos a lot, it’s a great resource. As far as teaching the moeller to beginners, I would say to introduce it, but not to expect too much development of it. When teaching, I believe in setting realistic/attainable goals for my students and drilling them home. I also expect them to experiment and explore other concepts. With this they will develop techniques and concepts.
Oh, and Murray I completely agree about all the stages in between these two techniques. It’s good to know the absolutes at either end so you can choose anywhere in between that’ll make drumming as easy as possible.
It’s funny looking back at `94 Cadets. The quads played very differently than the snares, we had some natural Moeller happening where they were pure wrist turn `til the cows came home. (It’s good to be a quad player.) We approached most things differently than the snares, yet always had the token answer when the snare tech asked about a stick height. We were playing different instruments and the beats lined up so it was all good.
Great topic! Ultimately I think that everyone should be able to do both, but I get where you’re starting from.
I always teach wrist turn first starting with the full stroke. I won’t do any accent/tap (down/upstroke) stuff until the full stroke is perfect. Then I’ll get to the Moeller (kind of a break the rules once you learn the rules thing). If this helps I classify them by wrist turn (from the wrist) and Moeller (from the arm so that the wrist doesn’t do squat). Or you could say, “play from the wrist” or “play from the forearm.” My rule of thumb from a rudimental perspective is “don’t add Moeller until the wrist would otherwise start to struggle a bit.” From the drumset perspective I say, “Screw it, big loose motions induce greasy goodness.”
If I have a guy who just wants to do set I’ll start with full stroke and then Moeller for accents (though part of me can’t wait to then make the student complete with the wrist turn options).
Hey Jon, regarding my perfunctory post, relaxed & flowing hands are beautiful, it’s a matter of making sure that their faces & body language show that they’re into what they’re doing. Having them practice sectionals in a circle where they can see each other always help people unify the hands.
Hey – Great, Bill! Thanks for the suggestion! By the way, your Logic Books are really helpful with breaking down the rudiments. The “builder” exercises are especially useful, and I like how your charts point out how the hand motions shift at different tempos.
I feel it’s best to expose students (be they drumset, rudimental, orchestral, etc…) to ALL possible strokes and teach them when and why certain ones will be useful, preferred, or even “frowned upon”. The use of the Moeller stroke has so many advantages, and I see its only “flaw” is that it’s difficult to get an entire snare or tenor line to look microscopically uniform when employing it. Because the Moeller stroke can be beautiful and its flow is no natural, this topic may tie into Bill Bachman’s “Perfunctory” post. In the high school line that I teach, sometimes the kids get so genuinely “into it” that I have to remind them to “tone it down” a bit. Sometimes the “monkey arms” start flying!
If any of you have a method for unifying the appearance of the whipping motion, I’d love to hear it!
Mark,
With young players I don’t use a lot of names of stroke types, I use descriptive names. Such as when playing paradiddles, I use the word “raise” as they get to the diddle and I have them do it as a “smooth” motion.
I never have taught young players to do Moeller technique. There are certain times later on that they will employee certain aspects of that technique – like playing a loud note on a floor tom. I send students who are really serious about music to The University of North Texas and theyl take a class which teaches the Moeller technique during the first semester.
Mike Myers
mikemyersmusic.com
This is a great topic Mark. I think some of the confusion about this type of training lies within the tendency to try to categorize things too much. There aren’t too many drummers out there that don’t use SOME aspects of a Moeller stroke in their playing. Once you are playing things with internal dynamics (e.g., 2-height patterns) at certain tempi, you can’t help but introduce a more flow-oriented approach into the motion, or you risk self-combustion!
Funny that you mention SCV as the exception here. To my knowledge I’ve never taught the Moeller stroke there (experiments with push-pull motions last year being the exception), but we definitely use what I would call ELEMENTS of Moeller. However, we still teach to lead with the tip of the stick, as you put it.
When dealing with drumlines, I think it is a hard road to define a technique based around the first initial motion of the stick coming from the wrist, and not the tip of the stick. Younger players may have a harder time identifying with the sound they create, if using an exaggerated Moeller approach.
I’m definitely no expert on Moeller technique, but I do work at it a lot. In order to get that stuff happening, you have to focus so much on the motions at first that the sound you create is almost an afterthought. In marching contexts, this might not be the right way to go
Nevertheless, if I can figure out a way to teach Moeller quickly to a group of people, you’ll probably see SCV do it! I can’t think of a more beautiful way to play.
Back to your original question, my own personal answer is that I think working on Moeller techniques here and there (or at least encouraging some exploration on the part of the individual students) cannot hurt, but can only help their development. The stuff is so good for targeting fulcrum muscles and teaching rebound that I honestly cannot think of a negative repercussion. It may be necessary to let the student know that, hey, you might not want to play this way at your drumline auditions, but in the spirit of holistic edification, study these motions!
Thanks for reading my novel.