This course dives into the fundamentals of hand technique and shows you the mechanics of holding the stick as well as the basic hand motions, which will allow you to play with control while staying relaxed. With these tools, you will be on your way to developing a solid foundation that is personalized to your needs as a drummer.

The Moeller Stroke, otherwise known as the technique that uses a "whipping motion" was established by Sanford A. Moeller. It was designed to aid the economy of motion for drummers, allowing them to play faster, and louder, by staying relaxed. Ed shows us how to develop the Moeller Stroke and various ways to approach practicing each stroke.

Ed Soph shares the importance of making the drum set comfortable and setting it up to fit your needs. It’s always important to understand that each drummer will have a slightly different way of setting up and that your kit should be set up to play comfortably and efficiently. Doing this will avoid discomfort and injury.

This course will help you gain control of both the bass drum and hi-hat pedal. Ed covers how to find the balance point of each pedal and how to achieve the desired spring tension to get a good rebound from the bass drum. He shares how to pull the sound out of the drum, and then dives into a variety of hi-hat techniques to help you gain control of your sound and dynamics.

This course covers different brush concepts and how to apply them in musical situations. Different articulations are shown to achieve the desired staccato or legato sound. Ed also shows us how to apply different rudiments and sounds to add more depth to your brush vocabulary.

These series of lessons cover one of the most important parts of being a musical drummer, playing the melody. Ed demonstrates how to approach playing in and around the melody by using a few different concepts to develop a musical solo.

If you study any of the greats in drumming history you'll notice they all have a good ride beat. Although they may all have subtle differences, one key factor that Ed shares is that they all have consistency in sound, time and dynamics. This course will help you develop your ride technique in a variety of tempos as well as understand how to adjust the time feel to best suit the musical situation, whether it be on top, in the middle, or slightly behind the beat.

Now that we’ve looked at the tune "Doxy" and practiced it on the pad, we can apply similar concepts to the drum set. Ed demonstrates a variety of concepts like using space, motif development, and rhythmic phrasing to help us improvise and build a musical solo around the melody. He also demonstrates how we can apply all these concepts to different styles including the Jazz Samba and the Jazz Songo.

We were excited to bring these phenomenal musicians into a lesson series designed to show you what it's really like on the bandstand. The band includes Chuck Berghofer on bass, David Garfield on piano and Jacob Scesney on tenor sax. Together they play and discuss many concepts including musical interaction, comping, listening, and time-feel. There is a wealth of information between all of these musicians; listen, enjoy and learn.