{"id":6260,"date":"2022-08-02T08:59:33","date_gmt":"2022-08-02T08:59:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/?p=6260"},"modified":"2024-02-08T09:57:29","modified_gmt":"2024-02-08T09:57:29","slug":"drums-stick-control-g-l-stone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/?p=6260","title":{"rendered":"BOOK REViEW: Stick Control, G L Stone"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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The first part of today\u2019s post is essentially a version of my old Goodreads and Amazon UK review of Stick Control<\/em>, only I can update that and expand upon it here. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And because this is my own blog, I can also give more nuanced star ratings. In this instance I give Stick Control<\/em> the rare and coveted six-stars, which, on my normal 0-5 ratings system, means off the chart brilliant. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The author, looking very, er\u2026 well\u2026 um\u2026<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Anyway, for starters, here\u2019s the augmented Amazon review:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jazz legend Joe Morello studied with George Lawrence Stone. That alone is recommendation enough! Morello was Stone\u2019s star pupil. And thanks to Morello\u2019s precocious work on Stick Control<\/em>, we also have Stone\u2019s follow-up, the snappily titled Accents and Rebounds<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ve been dipping into this for over two decades now. Although, to my everlasting shame, I\u2019ve not completed it yet.* I use it in my drum teaching all the time. And I tell all my students it\u2019s THE foundation book, ie essential.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A great tool for developing better reading, and – of course – stick control. Starting with such simple building block as singles, doubles, and groupings of three or four, per hand, the numbered exercises take you though a huge variety of combinations, leading with both right and left.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Joe Morello at the practice pad.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Stone says play everything 20 times. And play with a metronome at various different speeds. This is terrific conditioning practice on a pad, and fun to transfer to the snare. Of course one can then take it to the kit, and orchestrate it there in endless ways. All of this makes this book a lifetime investment. In a way, you can never truly \u2018finish\u2019 Stick Control<\/em>!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Used regularly, and with the appropriate doses of discipline, this book can impart strength, stamina, speed, control of dynamics, and much much more. Definitely one of the most essential non-gear (ie not the instrument itself!) bits of kit in the drummer\u2019s training arsenal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

* UPDATE: Since first posting this review, I am, now (summer of \u201822) making a concerted effort – not for the first time, mind you – to complete a continuous run through of the entire book. At the time of updating this, I\u2019m about one third through the whole volume, getting heavily into the flam section!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A much younger G L Stone (from PASIC).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Some further thoughts\u2026<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

So, that\u2019s my Goodreads and Amazon UK review take on Stone\u2019s classic work. In the latest update to that review I allude to what I\u2019m calling elsewhere my Stick Control<\/em> Summer Challenge. That\u2019s going pretty well. One week into my summer hols, and I\u2019m already just over a third of the way through the book. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This seems like a good time and place to add a few further thoughts on taking a deeper dive into this aged but illustrious tome. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For starters, having gotten further into the book than formerly – I did occasionally dip into later sections, but I\u2019d only ever systematically done the first five or six pages previously!) – I\u2019m encountering stuff I\u2019ve not tried before. Some of it easy, some very challenging (for me at any rate!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But there are also more fundamental issues, such as stick motion, and the exact ways to interpret certain notation. This is where a teacher from the Stone-Morello lineage would be very handy. I intend to explore this online, as I\u2019m sure YouTube will provide some answers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Morello looking very cool as an ambassador for Ludwig.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I won\u2019t get into massive detail here, as this is an area for more exact exploration later\/elsewhere. But taking just one aspect of the core subject, ie \u2018stick control\u2019, I\u2019ve been practicing the material in this book sat at a practice pad, and using strokes that range from fairly full to ghost or grace note level. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And sometimes I\u2019m leaning more towards French or German grip, but mostly I\u2019m using American grip, somewhere in the middle. Stick height, grip, rebound, all these aspects start to come into focus more as you dive deeper into the book. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another thing I\u2019m finding myself fascinated by is, again, like much of what comes from studying this work, nuanced and multifaceted, and that\u2019s how these exercises can become like meditative grooves. If one is playing 20 reps of a two bar exercise and then up to 24 or so different sticking variations of essentially the same (or very similar) rhythms, it gets quite hypnotic! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And one starts to hear the music or the groove in even these quite potentially dry exercises. And it\u2019s fascinating how regularly locking in to a metronome pulse for 20-30 minute chunks throughout the day starts to build better time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And if you set the metronome volume just right, there\u2019ll be moments where you think it\u2019s stoped, so you stop<\/em>\u2026 only to hear the metronome still going<\/em>. At those moments you\u2019re achieving nigh on perfect time, as you\u2019re covering the metronome so exactly you\u2019re effectively masking it!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A classic shot of Morello in action!*<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

* The Guardian, rather cruelly, perhaps, used this shot of Joe for his obituary! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

That opens the door on an aspect of this kind of study that I\u2019m definitely falling in love with; the routine of regular practice is, it seems, like we\u2019re told physical exercise is, or should be, both pleasurable and perhaps even somewhat addictive. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now to lean into the \u2018nuance\u2019 aspect a little. I\u2019m finding that the exact position of my hands and fingers on the sticks is coming more sharply into focus: if I find the right spot – esp\u2019 noticeable the higher\/harder and louder the strokes are – I can locate a zone where I can minimise the \u2018shock waves\u2019 that sometimes reverberate along the stick.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This must be the \u2018fulcrum\u2019, I guess? And it\u2019s slightly higher up the sticks than I usually hold them. At least on the Vic Firth 2Bs I\u2019m currently favouring for pad work. this actually coincides with another train of thought I\u2019ve been having about modifying (or better yet making my own) sticks. But I\u2019ll save that for another post. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anyway, the \u2018practice what you preach\u2019 aspect of studying Stick Control over this summer is proving to be both pleasurable and beneficial. And the associated YouTube surfing has lad me to discover yet another meister-drummer, so I\u2019m adding some of his stuff to my practice work-outs, such as this doozy:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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