Left Hand Velocity Stroke on a Marching Snare Drum

Video Transcript

" Hi! This is John Antonelli on behalf of Expert Village. This video lesson is going to be concerning the left hand stroke on a marching snare drum. We’ve already discussed how to hold the stick, our back fulcrum and our front fulcrum, off of our left hand. Now let’s discuss how to play this instrument. As was discussed of the right hand, the velocity stroke, I’m also going to apply that off of our left hand in making sure that we stay as velocitated as possible. We’re going to start at 12 inches and end at 12 inches. Now, notice my elbow is into my side. What’s going to happen is I’m swinging down as the elbow is going to come back out to the ready to play position, the coke can width from our side. Then as I’m coming back up the elbow will again come into my side. This is to help the arm weight of the stick help add velocity to the stick. Again, we’ll be traveling one third for the velocity and two thirds relaxed. This is how the stroke will look. As relaxed as possible, yet I threw for one third and relaxed the rest to allow it to rebound back out. Again, anybody can hold the stick and rebound out of the drum, but it’s important to make sure that we’re doing this with sound quality and velocity so that we can play at a decent dynamic level. Please check out our next video where we’ll be discussing the fulcrum exercise."