Single strokes (how to develop them)

[Matus]

So weird to see Weckl and others talking finger control. Mangini held a world record and during my lessons with him he always maintained that it's all wrist. I still play that way today (although not nearly at his level).

I'm a big believer in fingers, inertia, all the tricks, but I also think it's a lot easier to master those things after you've developed some wrist and forearm power. A lot of guys who've grown up with only fingers seem to lack some power in the playing ... but that's just a subjective observation.

The main problem with fingers is they don't allow for proper accent articulation, so I only use them for actual control, low volume hits and that's about it. Single strokes with no accents at all are as worthless as it can get, as far as music language goes.