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