It simply means that the playing surface can be the drumhead or cymbal (or whatever else you are playing), and can be struck in a number of ways. For unaccented (soft) strokes, you only pick up your drumsticks about half an inch (1/2"). Accented (loud) strokes the drumstick is picked up 8 to 12 inches.

This applies to any drum or cymbal. He's trying to help you with dynamics by giving you a height guideline to follow.


Little taps are played by keeping the drumstick close to the playing surface (aka drumhead). Accents or loud strokes are played by lifting the drumstick so that it comes from 8 to 12 inches above the playing surface (aka drumhead).

Thanks guys, that cleared it up. Now I understand what Garibaldi was saying.

smoggrocks:

In most cases, the word 'from' is not translated into Finnish as an independent word, but as an extension to the word that it refers to. "From the playing surface" in Finnish would be simply "Soittopinnasta", where -sta is the extension that 'from' translates to. 'The playing surface' in Finnish is 'soittopinta' but the phrase is not soittopintasta because of conjugation.

So the reason I was confused wasn't because I didn't understand the language, but because of the way the matter was expressed. If you just say "from the playing surface", misconceptions are possible because it could be theoretically to any direction, not just up, which even more confused me to question what the "playing surface" actually is. That's why it would have been much clearer to say something like "Accented strokes should begin 8"-12" above the striking surface...". But then of course one would think, 'what do I do to the stick after the strike', and it's kinda hard to translate the original meaning to cover that too, because there's different strokes.. ok maybe getting a bit carried away and this posting getting too long.

But anyway, thanks for help and good night, we can bury this thread now

PS. it's willle with three l's, not willie. So that people don't confuse me to someone Irish