snares and rolls.

[cabalumnidrummer]

Hi Charlie. All these suggestions are great advice. If you're interested, I just sent you a PM regarding roll exercises I could share with you. Hope to hear from you.

John Smith

[RichDeCapio]

The best exercise I know is to play rr ll as 16th triplet ruff. Then play an eighth note first then opposite hands ll rr.

[DanjrusMcRynky]

I would be a bit careful about practicing into a pillow. Use it simply as a chop builder, and not as an actual principle of your approach to the drum. Otherwise you will have a very choked, harsh sound. I used to always play an open roll at a comfortable tempo, say 16th notes rrllrrll at 100-120 (never be afraid to slow it down more for quality), and do it with a metronome for, say, a minute straight. Push yourself on this, if you can do 2 minutes, go for it. In between reps of doing this, do some 8s to loosen up. You want to keep the blood flowing, but avoid staying clenched as much as possible. Then do it again and increase time and/or tempo. Lather, rinse, repeat.

Above all, just play a lot. Always seek more answers to your questions, and find more approaches towards doing things. Beginning drumming is like when you see a baby trying to walk. They're all shaky because they haven't done it much yet. The more they do it as they grow up, the better they get at it. Make drumming the same second nature to yourself that walking is. Your muscles need the time to get used to things. The more you do it, the better you will naturally get at it. Good luck!

[OPTIMISTIC DRUMMER]

think about the 8th. notes as pulse on your right hand

[drumrguy]

I would be a bit careful about practicing into a pillow. Use it simply as a chop builder, and not as an actual principle of your approach to the drum. Otherwise you will have a very choked, harsh sound. I used to always play an open roll at a comfortable tempo, say 16th notes rrllrrll at 100-120 (never be afraid to slow it down more for quality), and do it with a metronome for, say, a minute straight. Push yourself on this, if you can do 2 minutes, go for it. In between reps of doing this, do some 8s to loosen up. You want to keep the blood flowing, but avoid staying clenched as much as possible. Then do it again and increase time and/or tempo. Lather, rinse, repeat.

Above all, just play a lot. Always seek more answers to your questions, and find more approaches towards doing things. Beginning drumming is like when you see a baby trying to walk. They're all shaky because they haven't done it much yet. The more they do it as they grow up, the better they get at it. Make drumming the same second nature to yourself that walking is. Your muscles need the time to get used to things. The more you do it, the better you will naturally get at it. Good luck!

Nicely put.

[Fastone]

For me coming up, the long roll was the basis of everything so, a long roll breakdown was the primary thing that I practiced. The more stamina I developed translated into a stronger roll. There's some real good advise on this thread, the only thing I would say is the more fundamental approach you take, the better results you'll get.

[Bighud]

One of the main reasons a player can not play rolls very quick is because the left hand is weaker than the right and can't keep up. Playing all your roll exercises to the met starting left hand lead will help solve this problem. Instead of following the right hand, the left will now be leading and pushing to stay in time.

[08Hawkeye]

Here's a couple I like

Someone already mention just playing invert taps on a pillow... once those are decent try playing inverted rolls: r l l r r l l r r l l r r l l r l - should make you concentrate on keeping the second partial as strong as the first, instead of that R r L l R r L l sound (ha.. like you could hear it) a lot of younger kids default to. remember consistency of sound

Another fun one is to set your met to 8th notes (even better, have someone (in fact, i check my students' rhythmic accuracy by doing this) play 8th notes on your pad/drum with you) and play a triplet roll over top. 8 and 25 works well with this. Every other 8th note lines up with a second diddle. Really makes sure you're playing in time.

[spirit7698]

About the pillow I would say don't play into it, play off of it. Everything you play on there do it very slowly say 80 bpm and slower. Think of your wrist movements being smooth ( for not) and playing in slow motion ( like a video played in slow motion). This will help you build muscle memory faster. It's the way body builders do it. Now more on the touch; don't pound just play the height. In fact when you do your down stroke right before the stick hits keep your fulcrum but release tension ( keep fingers on though) and on the way up lift the hand so it stays out of the sticks flight from rebound ( more evident on a pad or drum).

Play basic double beat exercise but accent the first beat and tap on the second then, next few times around accent the second beat and tap the first. The hand ( lift) motion for that is faster but don't pound the accent. This again is all slow 60 to 80 bpm no faster.

Now do the same thing again but emphasize the fingers with a tiny bit of wrist ( tiny). It's really more of an exercise to tug the fingers the appropriate velocity and time and not about the stick actually moving off the pillow ( until you get to a pad).

Thats just to build great diddle quality as well as control while fully using rebound.

Do all of this as double stops ( to work consistency in height and sound/ technique)

Back in my day we used to pound but we were playing on plastic, not kevlar.

Now for speed; take that touch to a pad and stay relaxed. No tension.

To the pad/drum

Get your 8 on a hand faster ( while staying relaxed) and work just wrist, then just fingers; next just arm. Like the way your arm would move if you bounced a basket ball. On a pad that should be all rebound no tension.

Get all 3 of those techniques faster separately ( wrist, fingers, arms) then put them together.

Next work double beat ( every note the same height). As you get faster ( 145 + ) on 16'th hand motion rolls, add some arm. The faster you go use less wrist ( except for a slight slight lift on the first beat) and use more arm. The fingers should be the same any speed but it may " feel" like mare because you are using less wrist.

It's called the " speedo " technique. Remember slow and correct is ALWAYS better than fast and fun.

Edited August 6, 2008 by spirit7698

[Nation of Bass]

There's more than one kind of roll so what kind?