Hey folks,
I’ve been practicing the Moeller technique for a while now. I’m starting to feel like I get the motion, and I am gradually bringing it up to faster speeds. But I’m still genuinely confused about when you’re supposed to use it musically.
My confusion is that a lot of interesting grooves have enough syncopation/coordination going on that Moeller either feels harder to apply—or like it stops being the “point,” since you’re using both hands anyway.
For example, take the classic “Funky Drummer” ostinato (below). At ~100 bpm you can obviously play it cleanly with straight alternating hands and no Moeller. But as the groove gets busier, you’re still using both hands, so Moeller feels less like a “solution” and more like an optional layer (e.g. why use it at all here?).
I can imagine using Moeller on the dominant hand for the hi-hat pattern (and getting the bass hit on “&”/”up” beat). And I guess you could apply it on the non-dominant hand too, though Robert doesn’t recommend that (at least early on).
So I’m left with the big question: when do you personally reach for Moeller?
Is it mainly a high-tempo endurance thing? An accent/control thing? A dynamics/feel thing? Or am I thinking about it in the wrong way—like it’s supposed to be used constantly, rather than as a tool you “turn on” for certain situations?
Would love any thoughts or examples from how you all actually use it in real grooves (I’m definitely following along in the Moeller class with the Police song). Maybe bread ‘n butter happens way more often at really fast tempos???
Thanks!
David
A lot of variables go into making that decision. You often have multiple ways to “solve” a problem in finger drumming and it’s not like only one always is clearly “the way”.
- If you have to go fast, often just using 2 hands is more relaxt.
- But… do you need your left hand for some extra hits at some point? Do you want the groove to keep going while you do that? Maybe Moeller is good then because you’re gonna lose that left hand at some point.
- Then there is also this subtle difference in how it sounds. I would probably do Moeller for this groove for example, simply because the drummer does it and it is just.. “that” sound. It could be done with two hands though. If you work on it real hard it might be possible to get the same feel, but I would go Moeller if I played this, purely for the feel.
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Thank you for the response, Robert. 
So are you saying you’d use a single hand and Moeller technique for the entire funky drummer groove? Or are you saying you you’d use alternating hands but you’d use Moeller for the hi-hat (as shown in the video) because it’s the correct feel, then the left hand catches all the ghost notes on “e” and “a”? I have questions about both possibilities.
The former (using alternating hands) means you’d have to Moeller both hands to get that “tuh-tee, tuh-tee, tuh-tee feel) because that feel is on a 16th hihat grove, not an 8th-note groove. So I guess this isn’t what you mean.
The latter (using a single hand doing Moeller for eveyrhing)… well, I’d love to see a video of you doing it so I can stare in awe and learn from it! 100bpm with all that extra action seems borderline impossible for a single hand from my still-new vantage point.
Perhaps you mean you’d use the dominant hand to Moeller just hat-hat, bass, and 2/4 accented snare hits, and then use left hand for just the “a”/”e” ghost notes?
Perhaps a summary of my confusion with Moeller is really about how one divides up the rest of the groove across the hands, given that one is going to use Moeller for a 16th-note hihat groove.
In any case, if you were able to easily make and post a video, I’d really benefit from it (no pressure, of course).
Thanks,
-David
Perhaps this is really the essence of my confusion. For the Funky Drummer, or for all things with complex left hand, I’m just keeping the 16th-note alternating-hand groove going as I play the other left hand notes. I’m not dividing up by kit piece, but by alternating hands: dominant hand owns 1-&, and left owns e/a, no matter what. Then I’ve just been handling any complexities through chording techniques (I can just as easily hit hithat+snare or hihat+bass on left or right hand).
-David
PS I’m half-way through the Next-Level Beats, so I’m aware of—and have practiced a ton on all those diabolical shifting metronomes—beats with doubles and paradiddles, etc., but that doesn’t seem relevant here (I’m pretty sure).
Here’s a video of me playing the Funky Drummer groove with two hands. It’s just alternating. I’d assumed everyone would do it this way until Robert mentioned he’d use Moeller.
-D
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Hi! You touched on a very broad and interesting topic!
In my opinion:
1. Beginners do not need to use the Moller technique.
2. For average players (at your level), it’s good to use Moller in simple beats of not high tempo (60-140bpm 8th notes) to enrich the hi-hat pulsation. This is definitely NOT Funky Drummer or Kissing my love! For example, try Billy Jean beat with Moeller.
3. Finally, for the advanced players… And they themselves know when to use Moeller)
Thus: try to use Moller with your right hand in simple beats so that they are not so boring sounding.
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Thanks for comment! It’s exactly this framing that I’m curious about. How do you go from merely practicing Moeller to using Moeller. And your answer makes sense as well:
One gets from 2) → 3) by your “Thus:” comment. Keep finding opportunities that aren’t just bread ‘n butter to develop it on the right.
