Hi Mike,

what you describe is exactly how I play! This is the position that brings the egg to life. Yes I can play clear melodies and bass lines on it AND in tune with the melodites. It does take a thin skin to get the effect of the full tonal range.

My left hand stays near the bottom of the drum and I press & roll either the heel of the hand (thank you Frank Torpey)or the knuckles at the base of the fingers (Thank you Paul Phillips)to raise pitch. I can go up over an octave without shifting my base position. I don't move my hand vertically for individual strokes but I will if I want to change the fundamental tone.

The technique is economical in terms of hand-travel but does take some pressure on the skin to get those notes clear. Coming from a 12" drum I was used to my left arm at 80- 90 degrees to the skin pressing in with the heel of the hand. For me it's small-drum technique transferred to a larger drum :)

I also need to keep some tension on the skin along with the natural hand-muting, this combination generates the most gorgeous 'rich' tone, it works at pitches down to almost the unmuted fundamental. I've tried the technique on round drums and it does sound good but not quite as rich as when one eggs the pudding :).

Using this left hand method can make it sound quite 'pitch-bendy', particularly if I'm not crisp in that low/high pitch change but that's a feature of this style and it can be either accentuated or practised-away.

You probably do it already, but another useful sound for getting clear tones is to press the knuckle[s] of your left thumb into the skin so the drum works essentially like a bell - experiment with 1 knuckle or 2 and with different positions and pressures. It's a very pure tone and you can bend it. Beware sliding your knuckle when it's under pressure, I lost skin that way :)

I'm intending to cover these kinds of left hand techniques in the advanced class in Milwaukee, it's easier to demonstrate than explain :)

Good luck with the essay.

[or have you gone to the pub already? :]

P