The book Stick Control is the foundation for many players....

Do you have that book?

David

I'm editing this as I've just placed a bid via ebay on a copy.

Cheers

There was an older thread about this topic which I can't find.

I started at 9 and did not get a snare drum until I was at least 12. I played on a practice pad for all of those years. That allowed me to build my technical playing skills really well on the snare drum.

That is just how my teacher taught back then.

At one point I started teaching and did the same thing with my students, but things had changed and parents were buying drum sets and the kids wanted to learn that and it was a real challenge trying to keep them focused on the snare drum.

I always gave them a little homework on the drum set if they got the snare drum lesson down.

So, depending on where your at in your playing I would knuckle down on just the snare drum for 90% of your practice time and 10% on the drum set.

Make sure your grip is technically correct now because new players tend to alter their grip to achieve faster playing, but in the long run they will suffer later.

So, keep the grip and work through it to gain the speed. But remember speed is a small part of it and not the ultimate goal!

In regards to the Stone book, I have seen so many different was of teaching it and even using it on the drum set later, every dummer should go through it..

David