"Developing Your Ghost Notes", the next unit, is something I can reasonably expect myself to accomplish. I've already taken a short course devoted to the subject, and since shortly after Day One on Drumeo I've been fiddling around with a half-time/Purdie Shuffle that contains them. As expected, this is coming much more easily. On Exercises 1 and 2, I was able to play them at the assigned speed of 80 BPM only minutes after their demonstration onscreen. Numbers 3 and 4 required slowing down, but I'm confident I can bring them up to speed before long.
After that Method lesson, I called up the "Practicing Pocket" course again and started the Basic Rock Groove video. Weeks ago, I'd been practicing, but that was before Moeller and the realization that I was wristing everything on the hi-hat. Grafting the 2-stroke Moeller onto what I already knew just didn't work, and I hit the wall even at slower speeds until I turned off the video and took it one. Step. At. A. Time. Like the man says, "Slow down. Do it again."
I set the video to 75% speed and began again about 10 minutes in to the 30-minute lesson. In a surprise to me, I didn't stop until the onscreen clock reached 00:00. Twenty minutes at 100% speed (about 80 BPM, I believe the instructor said) is how long at 75%? What's the formula for finding that? Playing 25% slower would add 25% to the running time, wouldn't it? 25% of 20 is 5, so that makes it a 25-minute drill, right? ("Dammit Jim, I'm a drummer, not a math major!")
OK, tonight's hour on the kit consisted of "Ghost Notes" for 20 minutes and "Practicing Pocket" for 25, with the other fifteen for the non-physical piece of it, whether it was watching and learning or just making sure all the equipment was in the right place before going on to the next part of the lesson. Let's keep doing this for a few more days, then move along to "Bass Drum Doubles." Sounds like something I wouldn't put off doing.
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