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The Method of
Snare Drum
Analysis

By Aundre Wesley
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This document deals with the technical analysis

Sanford Moeller:
“The moving picture to educate the eye and the
phonograph to educate the ear.”
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Purpose


To start, music is a uniquely human phenomenon. There are many elements to music as

well. One of the components that can be studied quantitatively is the technical aspect of snare

drumming through analysis of body and stick displacement along with analysis of the sound of

the snare drum produced by this motion. The goal of this analysis is to delineate most of what

can be quantified in the analysis of snare drumming while leaving other aspects of music and

art in the hands of the interpreter.

The simplest frame of understanding this mode of thinking is the concept of the human

body as a composition of geometric shapes that have one set configuration for each point in

space. These different configurations over time produce the sound of a snare drum; for a snare

drum cannot play itself. This means, in theory, one can effect the quality and repetitiveness of

one’s snare drum by altering or fixing the motions one produces before and after the strike of

the drum. The system of technical analysis that is presented here is a transcription of my

personal technique and the resulting sound from each strike. This transcription system has a

framework from motion capture data and wave form analysis, but can be used with a simple

camera phone. What I am presenting here is the framework of analysis based on human

anatomy and physiology, the tip of the stick acting as a projectile, the continuance of a straight

line theory, and sequencing of joints based on maximum and minimum values of the stick,

elbow, and wrist. This can be done by frame by frame analysis of the videos taken and

comparing the different strokes in their wave form representation.

Phonetic Approach to Snare Drumming Technique

In the field of Linguistics, the study of speech sounds through different configurations

of the respiratory system is known as Phonetics. For every sound found in human speech, there

is one configuration of the human body in respects to speech production. In other words, to

produce different sounds one must fix the the mouth and lungs in a manner which have

variance. There have been many innovations in the study of Phonetics through experiments

involving MRI scans of a speaker, or human subject, producing prescribed utterances which

then could be used to illustrate how the mouth is adjusting to produce certain sounds. Also, the

same data is typically analyzed by its visual wave form representation and compared to the

MRI scans. This method of analysis gives insight into how sound and motion in speech are

related to each other, and could provide evidence for the claim that the vocal tract (more

importantly the mouth, tongue, and glottis) manipulates the air from the lungs to produce the

sound represented in the wave form.

This same approach is used in the proposed analysis of snare drumming technique. Like

the study of Phonetics, this method makes certain claims: the body has one set configuration

for every point in space, the snare drum sound in performance is a direct result of the motion

before and after the strike of the drum, the snare drummer’s motion can fit inside of a cube, the

data taken from the motion capture system can be used as a framework to analyze any video of

motion. In the analysis of snare drumming, a particular technique is analyzed in this document.

The Moeller technique which is named after Sanford Moeller is the technique that is analyzed.
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History of Moeller Technique and Its Analysis

The method of analysis builds off of Sanford Moeller’s book: The Moeller Book, which

takes still camera frames of Sanford Moeller demonstrating the technique in reverse. This was

extremely beneficial for people who couldn’t learn from Sanford Moeller directly and the

material provided by Sanford Moeller operated as a sort of Self-Instruction Manuel (as

described in the Moeller Book). The Moeller Book describes the Civil War Era style of

drumming with precision by detailing the grip of both hands, the full stroke (or single stroke),

and the flam (right and left handed).

The next analysis of the Moeller technique which improved on Moeller’s approach to

technical analysis was done most recently by Jojo Mayer in his Secret Weapons for the Modern

Drummer DVD, where Jojo Mayer demonstrated a method of learning the technique that

Sanford Moeller first demonstrated in 1925. Jojo Mayer’s DVD is more of an instructional

DVD on the Moeller Technique. He explains how to develop the motion with multiple camera

angles, a computer generated model, and demonstrations of drum set application of the Moeller

Technique as well as some fusion ideas like: The Moeller-Mayer stroke, extensive finger

technique, and application of the traditionally rudimentary style on drum set.

The method of analysis presented in this document makes an improvement on the two

previously mentioned methods by introducing the Phonetic component to the motion capture

analysis. By comparing the motion capture data to the resulting sound wave, I can reverse

engineer the calibration machine and apply that method to any video involving snare

drumming. I can also compare the sound the mouth makes imitating the drum and compare.
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The Method

The experiment conducted in the primate locomotion lab at UT Austin utilized a motion capture system

and a camera phone to sync sound with motion. This approach to technique analysis was used to

provide evidence of how an interpretation of the Moeller stroke can be represented by displacement

over time. The purpose of the data presented here is to provide a framework for technical analysis of

any snare drumming video without the motion capture technology. However, snare drumming technique

can theoretically be placed inside of a cube and annotated through hand drawn illustrations with

precision based on set configurations of human anatomy, analysis of resulting sound wave production,

the path of the stick analyzed as a projectile, and geometrically based equations.

Here are some examples of a full stroke represented in hand-drawn illustrations:

Right hand shoulder, elbow, and wrist…

The Method

The selections of frames are based off of maximum and minimum values of displacements over

one sequence of the full stroke which follows a decay rate algorithm. These frames cube

drawings were reconstructed by taking the X, Y, and Z values of the shoulder, elbow and wrist

separately, and plotting each value on a separate number line. Then, a cube was constructed to

represent, or reconstruct, a calibration frame which could give a somewhat accurate

representation of movement based off of the values given in graphical data. I am asserting that

hand-drawn illustrations provide the best way for expressing movement over time in the

absence of a video or instructor. Here are the data for shoulder, elbow and wrist (resultant

vector shown). Note: Graphs show the right hand only

Conclusion

The framework presented can be used to analyze any motion performed by a human.

Regardless of the context, human motion can be illustrated based on human anatomy and its

relative positions in movement over time. The method presented is not necessarily new, but it is

an improvement on the analysis of snare drum technique expressed by Sanford Moeller and

Jojo Mayer.
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Works Cited

For the works of Sanford Moeller: The Moeller Book: The Art of Snare Drumming (1925)

For the works of Jojo Mayer: Secret Weapons for the Modern Drummer (DVD 2007)

Data captured in the Primate Locomotion Lab at UT Austin Anthropology Department