Tips for playing evenly?

[JazzAcolyte]

Take a quarter or a milk jug top and use it to draw a circle on your drum head at a point 3 inches from the rim farthest from you. Practice your strokes within that circle. practice for consistency.
Make sure your sticks are pitched similarly.
Make sure both hands move in the same way (matched grip)
After you can do all that, then simply close your eyes and play. The ears don't lie. That will quickly tell you what and where the problems are. Unfortunately, most people listen with their eyes.
You can do this!! Good Luck.

What do you mean by “pitched similarly?”

This is what the head on my snare looked like a couple of weeks ago before I replaced it.

 

[Russian Dragon]

How about this for a half-baked theory by a hack:

The reason you're hearing each hand start its bounces could be that there isn't enough overlap with the last few rebounds of the previous hand. Each hand's multiple bounces might be fine on their own, but it seems to me a smooth-sounding roll relies on a constant overall sound level. You'll always have a natural diminuendo from each hand's buzz strokes, so even sound relies on effectively overlapping the series of diminuendos.

Which is to say, try starting each hand's strokes earlier in the previous hand's bounces. More overlap = more consistent combined volume.

 

[JazzAcolyte]

How about this for a half-baked theory by a hack:

The reason you're hearing each hand start its bounces could be that there isn't enough overlap with the last few rebounds of the previous hand. Each hand's multiple bounces might be fine on their own, but it seems to me a smooth-sounding roll relies on a constant overall sound level. You'll always have a natural diminuendo from each hand's buzz strokes, so even sound relies on effectively overlapping the series of diminuendos.

Which is to say, try starting each hand's strokes earlier in the previous hand's bounces. More overlap = more consistent combined volume.

This is definitely a factor. I’ve been trying to figure out how to generate longer buzzes by experimenting with different levels of wrist, arm, and grip.

 

[kdgrissom]

What do you mean by “pitched similarly?”

This is what the head on my snare looked like a couple of weeks ago before I replaced it.

I mean that the Sticks should be pitched paired to the extent that they are clicked against each other separately (one held tight and the other loosely...then switched), they ideally sound the same pitch, or at least no more than a quarter tone apart (for me).

That's good! I'm saying about 2-3 inches from the edge because there is more surface tension near the edge for bounces and rolls. imagine the drum head as a perfectly round pond. If you drop a pebble in the center the waves of concentric rings start from that point and travel with equal force to the edge and return (diminished) and hit each other with the same force, cancelling the waves out. This would be a "tubby" sound with not much elasticity.
If you drop that pebble near an edge, the waves now have a focused direction in which to travel and bounce from one side to the other. This produces "ring" or sustain from the drum.

 

[notINtheband]

Tommy Igoe addresses this throughout his ‘Great Hands for a Lifetime’ dvd (also available for digital download)
After spending some time with this dvd years ago, I never experienced it again.
I still use it, even played to it yesterday and will today.
It’s a course you will never outgrow as a drummer. I’ve had it for over 10 years and never gotten all the way through it as it starts at beginner level and gradually increases in challenge and abilities.

 

[Tornado]

paging @Pat A Flafla , this is his bread and butter.

 

[Pat A Flafla]

paging @Pat A Flafla , this is his bread and butter.

Busy day. I have to play with a 4yo, then get some logs in the grill for an old friend's lat lunch visit, then proceed immediately to a gig on the other side of town, but I'll try to barf something out after that.
It's a drab and tedious life over here, I tell you.

 

[Sinclair]

I mean that the Sticks should be pitched paired to the extent that they are clicked against each other separately (one held tight and the other loosely...then switched), they ideally sound the same pitch, or at least no more than a quarter tone apart

Agree, a matched pair of sticks will go a long way towards the even sound your after.

 

[rsmittee]

Agree, a matched pair of sticks will go a long way towards the even sound your after.

Someone showed me how you can hear the pitch of your stick by tapping yourself on the head near the middle of the stick. Not too hard though! LOL.

Dynamics: I practice in front of a mirror to check my stick heights are consistent.
Note Placement: I also like to set the metronome to play every single note, then bury it.

 

[JazzAcolyte]

Someone showed me how you can hear the pitch of your stick by tapping yourself on the head near the middle of the stick. Not too hard though! LOL.

Dynamics: I practice in front of a mirror to check my stick heights are consistent.
Note Placement: I also like to set the metronome to play every single note, then bury it.

I have a mirror. Need to get better at using it, though. Interesting idea re: burying the metronome, thanks!

 

[Seb77]

I like patterns that turn around from R to L when repeated, all kinds, from very short to complete phrases. Goal is to make them sound the same.
Just one example:
RLRLRLRL/ R R R R / LRLRLRLR / L L L L
Variation: replace the slow strokes with different combinations, think first page of Stick Control.

For single strokes, I also like 3/4 with triplets, turns from R to L on every qurter note as well as on every One:
RLR LRL RLR / LRL RLR LRL /
Combine these qith quarter notes as well:
RLR LRL RLR/ L L L / LRL RLR LRL / R R R /

Endless variations ... I like coming up with exercises of my own, variety is the spice of life.

 

[mebeatee]

I practice in front of a mirror to check my stick heights are consistent.

This^^^^^^....and not only from the front but both sides as well....behind me didn’t work so well...
Seeing is believing....
I have “illustrated” (to) students (un)even rolls many many times using a mirror.
Another method is to use part of the kit as a visual device....ie the height of the hats or tom tom in relation to the snare drum....little strokes on the snare below the rim of the rack tom and accented ones a little higher, adjust accordingly.
bt

 

[Sinclair]

Someone showed me how you can hear the pitch of your stick by tapping yourself on the head near the middle of the stick.

Granted you might draw a nice crowd of hot young tattoo'd Rock chicks at Guitar Center when using this technique, and possibly even get lucky....but these are not the type of women you need in your life. (I recommend your local bar for that) Plus it only furthers the abundance of Neanderthal drummer stereotypes.

 

[JazzAcolyte]

Granted you might draw a nice crowd of hot young tattoo'd Rock chicks at Guitar Center when using this technique, and possibly even get lucky....but these are not the type of women you need in your life. (I recommend your local bar for that) Plus it only furthers the abundance of Neanderthal drummer stereotypes.

 

[dingaling]

Don’t play while drunk. Helps tremendously. Burp.

 

[rsmittee]

Granted you might draw a nice crowd of hot young tattoo'd Rock chicks at Guitar Center when using this technique, and possibly even get lucky....but these are not the type of women you need in your life. (I recommend your local bar for that) Plus it only furthers the abundance of Neanderthal drummer stereotypes.

I wonder how many have actually tried it since I posted this.

 

[DamnSingerAlsoDrums]

What do you mean by “pitched similarly?”

A quick and pretty surefire way to pitch match your sticks: open your mouth and while holding the stick with the loosest fulcrum you can, do a small tap on the top of your head. The pitch of the stick will be very easily heard/identified. It may seem and look silly but it's the most accurate/easiest way to insure starting with 2 sticks of the same density/weight and pitch. When I get my stick bag out, I like to match two or three pairs in advance, not that it makes a big difference with my highly non-consistent hands, but ultimately, I convince myself that every little bit helps

 

[5 Style]

Though I feel like decades into this, I'm still pretty limited with my skills, if there's one thing that I feel I can do very well, it's single and double stroke rolls. What really helped me with this is getting into playing a pad, which is something that I pretty much never did ever since I took some lessons as a teenager. Just going back and fourth between singes and doubles on a pad and really meditating on the evenness of the stroke pays off when you get on the drum kit. Building efficiency and endurance like this will help you play the kit in a more general sense too and not just when it comes to playing roll kinds of stuff (I find that I have far more endurance these days playing a steady 8th note ride pattern than I had before).

Beyond that, a lot of it really comes down to your grip and stroke. Make sure that you're holding the stick at a good fulcrum point between thumb and forefinger, that you have your other fingers loosely curled underneath and that you're using a kind of snapping motion that incorporates both wrist and fingers. I use very little arm movement, but I suppose that if your aim is more volume than some of that is probably useful as well. I play a bit with both traditional and matched grip, but I find it easier to do rudiments with matched grip so that if you haven't really settled on one yet I'd go with that to start.

So that you don't get bored going over just single and double strokes on the pad, I'd suggest mixing in other rudiments, like 5 and 6 stroke rolls. One excersize that I found, which looked easy enough, but took me a little while to really get clean with is alternating triplets with 5 stroke rolls, doing a bar of each, making sure that the quarter notes are accented a bit and are really even... like this: RLR LRL RLR LRL Rllrr Lrrll Rllrr Lrrll

 

[5 Style]

I like patterns that turn around from R to L when repeated, all kinds, from very short to complete phrases. Goal is to make them sound the same.
Just one example:
RLRLRLRL/ R R R R / LRLRLRLR / L L L L
Variation: replace the slow strokes with different combinations, think first page of Stick Control.

For single strokes, I also like 3/4 with triplets, turns from R to L on every qurter note as well as on every One:
RLR LRL RLR / LRL RLR LRL /
Combine these qith quarter notes as well:
RLR LRL RLR/ L L L / LRL RLR LRL / R R R /

Endless variations ... I like coming up with exercises of my own, variety is the spice of life.

Those are good ideas and ones that I use (though I hadn't thought of the 3/4 idea). I know what you mean about "inventing exercises" as I do that too. I realized that I wasn't very good with flams which lead with my left hand, so I wanted to figure out how to work a back and fourth thing using flams leading with each hand. That lead to an "invented excersize" and part of what I was doing I realized was an actual rudiment, the Swiss triplet. I wish I cared about rudiments more when I started playing as I'm really just catching up on that now and realizing how right folks were when they said that that stuff is super-important. I just figured that it was for corps drumming mostly, but I was clearly wrong. My problem now though is even though I can do much more of this on the pad, I have difficulty incorporating a lot of it into my kit drumming, particularly stuff where the bass drum gets subbed out for one of the hands. I feel like I have pretty good independence for beats but not so much for fills... if that makes sense.

 

[rsmittee]

One more thought that doesn't involve hitting oneself in the head...

I recently had the opportunity to play congas on a couple songs for the first time. While learning my conga parts, I found the bare hand work to be more challenging than I expected, and it seemed to expose some weaknesses. I've begun incorporating stick control without the sticks into my regular routine, and am noticing a difference. Cool thing is I can do it at my desk or the kitchen table or on my legs. No gear required.