Double stroke roll and buzz roll

The double stroke roll, or "open" roll, and the buzz roll (also known as the closed double stroke roll) are both very important rudiments to practice regularly. Ideally, you should be able to start out playing a very slow double stroke roll (R R L L) and speed it up, eventually "closing" the double strokes into subtle ruffs which blend together to form the buzz roll.

Double Stroke Roll:

R R L L
L L R R

A good tip is to practice these in a triplet based timefeel, such as:


(R R L L R R) (L L R R L L)


The following mp3 demonstrates both the open and closed rolls, as well as the above triplet-based doublestroke pattern. Listen carefully, and in places you can hear the triplet emphasis.

http://mark.qsmusic.net/snare_closedopen.mp3

It also demonstrated a fun little hihat-snare-bassdrum lick which goes like this:


The type of note you play in the above example is irrelevant, just play each note equally spaced and start it very slow to get the coordination into your muscle memory, then work the speed up. Try playing it as straight 8ths, triplets, 16ths etc.. all to a constant tempo to really emphasize the coordination.

Contact: mblomquist@berklee.net

Importance of simple rudiments..

People often neglect dedicating serious practice time to basic rudiments because they seem "easy" or "boring". However they are extremely important for developing good hand technique. Here are a few examples to start with:

Four Stroke Roll:

RLRL
LRLR

Four Stroke Rough:

lllR
rrrL

an alternative way to play the rough is like this:

rllR
lrrL

Here is an mp3 I recorded of some practice pad doodling which uses both of the above rudiments extensively. A smooth consistent tone can be achieved by practicing these slowly at first and gradually working up speed.

Five Stroke Roll:

rrllR
llrrL

This version of the 5 stroke roll is a total of 5 notes including the accent. The more traditional version is 6 total notes with 5 grace notes. It's slightly easier to perform and I also find it more useful.

Seven Stroke Roll:

rrllrrL
llrrllR

This version of the 7 stroke roll is a total of 7 notes including the accent. The more traditional version is 8 total notes with 7 grace notes. It's slightly easier to perform and I also find it more useful.

Here's an mp3 I recorded of some kit playing with both of these rudiments being used extensively on the hi-hat and ride cymbal.

Contact: mblomquist@berklee.net

Jazz coordination exercises

Jazz drumming is often regarded as difficult due to its triplet based time feel. Generally the right hand plays the ride pattern while the left hand comps. Playing a constant ride pattern without having to think about it is the key to being able to separate your hands and really improvise on the snare freely. Many, many jazz drummers use comping patterns made from 3 simple basic ones. I crudely illustrated them here, and provided midi files of what they should sound like if you click the diagrams. Practice these extremely slow at first, focusing on consistent sound and accuracy. Eventually you'll build them up to speed. The *'s represent rests in the triplet (remember all 4 beats in a bar of swing time are subdivided into 3 triplets). Note: The first two bars are the same as the last two bars in all of these, but I wanted it to be a full 4-bar figure:

When you comp, simply chop these left hand patterns apart and rearrange them while keeping the ride pattern constant. Here's a midi I made of some example comping using strictly these 3 patterns.

Now if you don't know what to play with the bassdrum, an easy way to start is to simply play it instead of the snare drum every other note, also while keeping the ride pattern constant. Occasionally play two in a row to alternate the up or downbeat emphasis. Here's a midi of the same comping example from above using this bassdrum technique.

Contact: mblomquist@berklee.net

A favorite snare piece

Here is a favorite snaredrum piece of mine from the book 'Portraits in Rhythm' by Anthony J. Cirone. It was introduced to me by Richard Flanagan, an amazing drummer at Berklee. I only had a crude faded copy of the piece but here it is, if you click it you can get an enlarged hi-res version which you can print:

Welcome to Drum Technique and Strick Control

I'm a student at Berklee College of Music in Boston, Mass. My principal instrument is drumset. In this blog I'll be posting lessons and tricks I've learned that have hugely improved my playing and improvisational ability.