Developing the buzz roll, also known as the multiple bounce roll drum rudiment, was a big mystery to me for a long time. I had numerous teachers, including one that was the principal percussionist with the Omaha Symphony at the time, and none of them seemed to be able to teach this technique to me. I’d ask them how to practice it, or how to improve it, and I just got blank stares, or very vague explanations.
Eventually I kind of just figured the rudiment out on my own. I had my instructor, who had a really good buzz roll, play it while I observed his hands from all different angles. I observed that he was actually taking his middle, ring, and pinky finger off the stick while playing the multiple bounce roll. I asked him if he was aware of this and he said no. I then spent a week, practicing my multiple bounce roll with this modified grip. To my surprise, my roll improved 100 percent!
I once heard a speaker say, “It’s not hard to teach what was hard for you to learn.” I have found this to be completely true. My theory about all those teachers I had that couldn’t teach me to do a good multiple bounce roll, was that it simply came very naturally to them, so they never really thought about how they actually did it.
I don’t know whether all percussionists modify the grip this way when playing the multiple bounce roll drum rudiment, but I’ve found it very effective in my own playing as well as in my private teaching.
The other thing I’ve found is that it’s very important to hold the stick in the first joint of the first finger, not in the second joint, and not in between, etc. This gives you as much control as possible.
You want to get as many bounces out of each stick as possible. You basically get the stick going, and then let the stick do most of the work. This is why a modified grip works best. You’ll find that when you put all fingers on the stick, you choke the bounces, and get less bounces per stick.
As in all other practicing, you should start developing this technique by playing very slow. Alternate hands, just playing quarter notes. You want the last stick to still be bouncing when the next stick starts, so the bounces are slightly over-lapping. As you become more comfortable you’ll play 8th notes in this manner, and eventually 16th notes.
You have to develop a certain amount of speed before the roll will start to sound even, but not too much speed. You want it to sound like a sustained sound, but if you roll too fast, it will choke the sound of the drum, and simply sound bad.
After you have a certain degree of proficiency at a medium, comfortable dynamic level, you should practice the buzz roll at various dynamic levels, ranging from extremely soft to extremely loud.
Next practice switching from multiple bounce strokes to single strokes. Just play 4 single strokes followed by 4 multiple bounce strokes, alternating hands, RLRL, etc. Again, start with quarter notes, then move to 8th notes, and finally to 16th notes. As you’re moving back and forth between the multiple bounce strokes and the single strokes, it’s very important to modify the grip. Keep your fingers close to the stick, and put them back on the stick for the single strokes, taking them off for the multiple bounce strokes.
The next thing to practice is accented multiple bounce strokes. Practice this the same way as above, with RLRL sticking. Start with quarter notes, followed by 8th notes, and finally 16th notes. Just practice adding an accented multiple bounce on each note of the 4 note grouping.
The last step in the development of the multiple bounce roll, is to practice non-metered rolls at various tempos. You will basically always roll at the same speed, no matter how fast a given piece of music is. You are simply sustaining a note for a given amount of time, the same as when you do a single stroke roll on the marimba, tympani, or suspended cymbal.
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