technique is personal

Now that we understand the objective of our approach to percussion, we start glimpsing into the territory of purpose. Very few things in this life offer such a glimpse. A lot of people that teach about percussion forget how wonderful this glimpse into the giant void and mystery of purpose really can be. Why? Because it is not something that can be taught. It is human. Unfortunately for those teachers and their students, they are missing the most important reason why we do what we do. We are humans in deep need connecting with our own mystery. Who are we? Why are we here? These are not questions normally addressed in private lessons, because they lead to more mystery.
We are not afraid of the mystery. In fact, we want to embrace the mystery because it is why we practice percussion in the first place. In attempt to embrace that mystery and better embrace the objective of rich, warm tone, you are safe from being oppressed with technical jargon in this dojo. The only technique I will encourage you to is what I call Flo.
Flo is an interesting concept which I did not come up with. I was taught flo by another student of flo. But flo is a light in the darkness of all this mystery. It is simply this: embrace your natural method of producing rich, warm tone. But often the things that are most simple are the most difficult. This is why most people avoid teaching flo. It is difficult to uniform. You can't create a formula to encapsulate it. There is no five step program to achieve flo. Flo is a journey, not a destination; a constant relearning of one's self and technique to produce richer, warmer tone. With flo, there are no masters. With flo, there is only one answer: relax. Everyone is a student on the journey to perfecting their own selves.
So to help you understand flo, I will show you examples of what flo is and what flo isn't. Flo is learning your own mind a body and pushing it to new heights of producing rich, warm tone. Flo is understanding that technique is personal...music is personal.
Flo is not white-knuckle percussion. Flo is not shoes in a dryer. Flo is not a five step program to success.

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Be sure to watch Freddie Smith's solo which I linked to the title. Just click on "Technique is personal" above and you can watch a student of flow in a practice of this fine art.