In the lesson on posture, there are tips on keeping the wrist straight but I’m not sure what is the best approach to ‘finger form’.
Robert seems to slightly extend his fingers, that looks quite a relaxed light motion whereas i find myself hitting the pads hard with the side of my fingers. From what videos i’ve seen, it is maybe normal for the thumb to hit side-on but not the fingers. However, I already have some soreness in my thumb so I think i’ve not doing something right.
I’m going to try to study further the hand position, but if anyone has any advice or pictures which show good finger form. It may also be a question of relaxing more, which on the Piano is certainly key.
I personally do not hit the pads with the side of my fingers at all. Only exception is indeed the thumb. I usually hit the pad with the bone on the side that sticks out a bit. But that’s just the thumb!
I think the relaxedness you see is for a large part the fact that I really don’t hit that hard. In my experience, just the weight of your hand falling down should be more than enough to trigger a pad. If that’s not the case, the main problem could be pad sensitivity.
Maybe leave a small video of yourself playing. I’ll look at it and tell you what I see.
The one thing that’s a bit unfortunate with finger drumming is that it’s a new instrument and almost nobody has played this for a long period of time. So it’s also up to us to first of all be careful, not oveprlay and second of all keep an open mind and figure out what works for different people. Simply with the shape of peoples hands it could be that not everybody can play exactly the way I do.
A - following Robert’s advice on another thread and turning off the (after) Press function in Controller Editor for the Mikro MK3
B - Modify the velocity curves in AD2 to make them ‘Harder’ which makes you less cautious to get a proper hit so you feel fine to lightly hit the pads
C - Use the device for some time, playing around (seems to kind of warm it up - without it actually getting hotter)
Managed to improve finger posture by lifting my position / standing. I found if i’m higher up (actually with the elbow above the wrist) then my hand is in a better position and im not forcing the finger joints and my hand felt relaxed, kind of how it looks for Robert in the videos (well not exactly alike…or i’d be much happier still!). I’m tall with fairly long limbs so this might be a factor.
Ok one thing I can see here is that you might want to try and completely lock your elbow joint (not forever just as an exercise) and then hover your hands above the pads and just move your wrist down with a little tap. So no arm movement, wrist movement.
It is important that the controller is at the right height to do this, so your arm should be straight above the pad, with your finger curved down almost hitting it and then just… a small tap with the wrist.
It’s not like you cannot use your arm, but it’s a powerful muscle so if your fingers are hurting, using your wrist as the main joint will probably reduce the impact a lot. On top of that, I found that you have the most control from the wrist. It’s the main joint I use for hitting, not my arm.
And just to be super clear: The elbow should not stay locked. Nothing should lock up while playing. You might just want to do it to really force that wrist to make the taps instead of the arm. And then let go again.
Have you given any more thought to the thumb orientation?
On FGDP, I’m also finding it more natural to hit the knuckle on the side of the thumb. I rotate my wrist inward to strike. I can rationalize this by thinking that it is the same thumb orientation as the “vertical mouse” I use, or that the thumb joint is better for grasping not poking. But I don’t want to get off to a bad start if this is known to be “bad practice”.
It’s still the same. The thumb is indeed the knuckle. At least that is how I do it.
I don’t do the rotating wrist thing to slap with the thumbs. I basically just move the wrist up and down a little bit (straight and down to be exact).
Thumbs then just move down independently but really by using the thumb joint and not by rotatin the arm or wrist.
I think it’s important to realise that you do not need much force at all to get a full velocity hit out of the pads. That’s why the simple thumb movement is fine and there is no need for extra force from the arms.