Drummerjunkie04
Member
I am having a hard time getting my students to do a properly controlled buzz roll. I understand the mechanics and how to use the rebound to get as many strokes on each hand, but can't seem to get a across correctly. Ideas?
other greats such as Steve Gadd or Mike Portnoy
Here's something I did last year for someone who was curious about pipe band buzz rolls. Again, in the cellar so as not to wake anyone!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xGlpTlNx1rE
The technique for this is geared toward highly tensioned Kevlar heads, with a snare strainer under the top head as well as the bottom, so the response is very quick. If you're playing kit, or concert snare, you'll have to adjust your technique accordingly- a bit less pressure.
If you play traditional grip, the left hand thumb points down the stick, and does the majority of “finger” action. The forefinger and middle finger are more or less guides. It’s as if you’re giving someone a left handed handshake. There should be a smooth, gentle curve running from your shoulder, to your elbow, to the back of your hand. In the right hand it’s somewhere between an American grip (45°) and French tympani. The stick is held between the forefinger and thumb with a sizeable gap between them near the joint. The middle and index finger provide all of the action and the pinky is completely off the stick. Sticks are at a 90°-120° looking down at the head, and the elbows are slightly forward (not tucked into your body), so your left wrist isn’t in a position to turn outward (like Spiderman shooting his web!).
This is specialized for pipe band drumming, but can be adapted for other techniques. Keeping that in mind, things that help to make a quality buzz roll:
For a “natural” approach:
“Own” doubles. You can’t have a good closed roll, i.e. buzzed roll, if you have a weak and uneven open roll. Practice them with a triplet (or sextuplet) feel, so the downbeat of each group of 3 doubles shifts from the right to left hand. Take your doubles to your max open tempo (where they’re two distinct strokes) and then substitute a buzz for the doubles. Same number of wrist turns as the doubles, but focus on a smoothness of sound.
3 on a hand. Then 6, 12 & 24. Play 3 at one tempo. When you feel like it, go to 6, then do the same for 12 & 24. Then go back to 3 on a hand but increase the tempo slightly and work through the same exercise. Keep doing it until you hit your max tempo. You can play them dead even in volume or slightly accent the 1st of every 3. Use fingers for this, so there’s only one wrist turn/forearm raise for every 3 strokes. Play with a comfortably high stick height, as this is for endurance as well as control.
Also try this. Start from doubles, increasing tempo until near your max. Switch to 3 on a hand. At your max tempo, switch to buzzes and increase tempos for 10-30 seconds until you hit your max. Take a 30 second break and do it again.
For a “measured” approach:
Play triplet based buzz rolls. Slowly, with a metronome. Push the buzz from the fingers (thumb in the left hand). Begin with “buzzed sevens”- 3 buzzes and a tap. Start with the left. Then the right. Then alternate. Start slowly. It WILL sound dirty and pulsy. That’s OK, since you’re looking for a distinct, quality sound. Then try “buzzed 13s”- 6 buzzes and a tap (or two sets of triplet buzzes and a tap). Then “25s”- 12 sets of buzzes (or four sets of triplet buzzes and a tap). Then a continuous roll- 15 seconds to a minute. They are going to sound dirty, almost harsh with a noticeable gap between hands. As you increase tempo slightly, the gap will go away, but there will still be a pulse in the sound where you put the peak pressure in each hand. Eventually you ease up the pressure and increase the tempo to the point where your roll should sound like tearing cloth (or like a steam pipe bursting when played on a drum). But you’ll still have a triplet motion between hands.
-John
That's SO funny, man!
Fox.
Whats so funny about that statement. I'm afraid that I missed the joke
They're usually taught in terms of making a buzz by applying pressure; I do it backwards, in terms of decreasing pressure. I start them with a dead stroke- making a normal wrist stroke, but stopping the stick dead against the head- by relaxing their grip very slightly, they can turn that into a buzz. The exercise I have them do to play the dead strokes single-handed while gradually relaxing. Usually in a lesson we'll have to run that process several times per hand.
The other major element besides a quality multiple-bounce stroke is the rhythm. I make sure they play the roll in rhythm even if it's too slow to sound like a continuous roll at first. So if we're working with a page of 8th notes and quarter notes, I might have them buzz the 8th notes so they can learn to make sequences of buzzes and taps slowly.