I generally keep my wrist fairly straight, with the tipper almost perpendicular to my arm. (Hold it like a pen and then turn the writing end towards you.) This will help in developing triplets and cuts down on the wear and tear on your wrist. Follow the "whipping the thermometer' analogy, but don't shake your whole arm, just turn your wrist. When you first start, you'll notice your down stroke may be more prominent than your upstroke. One exercise that will help this is to play the basic reel pattern backwards (UP down up down UP down up down.....) By accenting the upstroke you'll force the muscles in your wrist that are responsible for the upstroke to develop. Try playing without accent so that someone listening with there eyes closed wouldn't be able to discern the up and down strokes. Practice SLOWLY, at first. This will make any flaws in your rhythm painfully obvious. If you start out trying to play as fast as Frank Torpey or Tommy Hayes, you won't catch those early problems until after you've been practicing them for a long time. I tell my students if they are gong to miss a days practice, the day after a lesson is a bad day to miss. If you forget what you're supposed to be practicing and practice a mistake for a week it is even harder to go back and correct it, because by that time, the mistake feels right. A great disc to practice with is Martin Hayes "Under the Moon". Martin plays slowly enough for a fairly new player to keep up with, he really punches the accents on the fiddle, and his timing is flawless. Gradually, play with faster CDs. Listen to a lot of drummers. LIsten to Johnny McDonagh, Donnchadh Gough (Danu), Colm Murphy, Frank Torpey etc. They'l show you what your drum's supposed to sound like. Finally, PLEASE don't play sessions until you have at least the basics down, and can play in time. You'll find people more helpful if you haven't driven them to cursing you under their breath. If you have a local session to go to, go and listen. If the you see a player who knows what he's doing ask for help outside the session.

Good luck, and if you have problems feel free to contact me rrayburg@hotmail.com

Rich