Virgil's Spins

[DeepThought]

Its really hard to pick out how he does spinning with traditional grip.. what the heck is he doing?

[DoubleBass_Rob]

Spinning would actually be easier with trad, because the stick is already between the fingers!

[jimi]

Deep thought, check the old pages of the PX forum, i asked there once and jagdkommando explained and has pics up at his site.
If not, if you have TUDW try slow-motion and watch his movements, that can help alot :-)

[jagdkommando]

Hey Jimi!

Are you already able to twirl with trad. grip etc. in the way I explained it? Did my pics help? Soon there will be more detailed pics on my webside and maybe a small video :)

Regards M.

[jimi]

Yes, of course!! I keep a pair of sticks in my room, and i do a couple of exercises in the morning if i've time and at night too. Or even if i'm in my room or around the house or watching the TV. I haven't broken anything with flying sticks yet so i'm confident enough :-) I also learnt a spin Virg did on the Ring of Fire DVD Interview and am trying my best at his snare spin move (where one hand is spins the stick once while the other hits the snare and vice versa). Virg can do this SO fast!
The biggest problem wasn't learning the spins at all but trying to apply them to the kit, anyone find this??

[jagdkommando]

yes you're right. I've the same problem ... I'm not slow with twirling, but applying it to the kit in a senseful way is hard ... the biggest problem is playing very fast e.g. on the snare and then starting twirling at once, because it is hard to prepare the twirling while playing fast... especially to put the finger(s) on the other side of the stick ... this causes a short break that kills the fluency of soloing.

Another problem is, that once I make a mistake with the twirling the whole twirl-rythm is out of control. I always practice twirling while playing double strokes on the bass drum ... but once I lose the control of twriling everthing is out of control ... :(

But hey ... Virgil practiced it for many years :) so we have time .. especially to develop our own twirl-technique.

And Jimi ... I also run through the house while twirling the sticks *g* ... and all the people here (it's a student hostel) want to hit me because they're always getting so nervous ... hehe.

[jimi]

Don't worry, i'll keep practising, i've stopped hitting myself in the head now from flying sticks (doh!) so it's developing a bit anyway :-)

Virg spins at the kit so fluently and i've tried watching him, i find he would hit a drum 3 or 4 times for longer spins with the right hand and so on, the rhythm problem/or breaking the flow is the same for me. But i have a clip from MD Fest where Virg almost drops the sticks but it doesn't affect his train of thought at all, i have the solo on audio and you wouldn't even think he was spinning because the drumming sounds well!
I don't know whether to get depressed when comparing to Virg cos he so good or to go, 'Hey, that is humanly possible, lets give it a bash!'

[bouts]

hi,
you can see john blackwell jr DVD. there is a chapter on stick twirling, and old drummer's video as lionel hampton.:D