Tips for playing evenly?

[Pat A Flafla]

A suggestion above about closely monitoring heights is a very important one to consider. If you think about a stroke being a certain percentage of your maximum, then the dominant hand will be louder at matched effort levels. Working on matching absolute heights between hands seals off this potential pitfall.

There's a lot going on in the grip though. A huge part of technique refinement involves becoming hyper-aware of the tactile sensations of every point of contact and articulation in your hands, wrists, and arms. "Turn on your sensors" so to speak and really think about tiny differences between each hand at every corresponding spot that you can feel on each stick. Maybe your middle finger contacts the stick in a slightly different point on each hand. Maybe one thumb starts out as flat as the other but then the knuckle pokes up. There are countless tiny differences you won't be able to see, that you can feel if you concentrate enough on the tactile information your nerves are sending your brain.

One way to force your brain to analyze this info deeper is to intruduce the possibility of failure if one hand is more tolerant of technique flaws, and the Wicked Chops pad (linked below) is wonderful at that. Where it really shines is in revealing problems transitioning from different stroke types. For example, when I started working with it playing all legato strokes or all rolls weren't a big problem, but when I played stuff like chicken and a roll, or accent grids, or especially hybrid rudiment shopping sprees, my left would frequently bounce off, and that's because though I could start one type of stroke and maintain it on the pad, the hands were still slightly different and it was the repositioning of my left hand from stroke to stroke, overutilizing the back fingers just slightly from side to side that was causing incinsistent tone production. The Wicked Chops pad highlighted this by not having enough room to accommodate this lack of refinement in my left hand.

Also, building on the buzz overlap suggestion also previously mentioned, a great sounding buzz roll will have moments where both sticks are on the head at the same time. It shouldn't be as if the sticks are tied to a pulley, where one goes up when the other goes down. I ask students to imagine the sticks and drumhead as conductors between an imaginary power source in the floor and a light bulb on the top of their head, and then imagine trying to make the bulb burn continuously without flickering due to a stick not being in contact with the head.

If you still have a hard time ferreting out hand-to-hand inconsistencies, good places to look for ruthless one-on-one technique troubleshooting would be people who get paid to play snare drum in orchestras or highly experienced DCI snareline techs (the ones who last are incredibly detail oriented; the ones who don't are just gock blocks wearing flip-flops saying "get your taps down.").

And as you can see, I love addressing this kind of stuff. After an evening of hating the people shoving phones in my face while I play, this old curmudgeon finds calm, quiet comfort in obsessing over the minutiae of drum technique.

Really, the details of the distance of each stick from your palm, the amounts of middle segments of fingers touching sticks, relative radius/ulna positions, precise position and functioning of finger pads, etc. is a black hole you can get lost in if you jump full body down that rabbit hole.

https://www.amazon.com/Ahead-AHWCP-Practice-Pad/dp/B078YCTBDG/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=wicked+chops+pad&qid=1672383088&sr=8-1

 

[JazzAcolyte]

A suggestion above about closely monitoring heights is a very important one to consider. If you think about a stroke being a certain percentage of your maximum, then the dominant hand will be louder at matched effort levels. Working on matching absolute heights between hands seals off this potential pitfall.

Very helpful, thank you! I ordered that practice pad - looks very interesting.

 

[rsmittee]

I ordered one also. Great stuff!

 

[Rock Salad]

In my experience there is no such thing as a perfectly pitch and weight matched pair of sticks. When I looked for advice about developing my grip, a repeated advice was to hold the sticks loosely so I can hear the stick ring when striking the pad. But for even playing we need to stop listening for the stick's ring.
For me, practicing displaced accents in simple rudiments helps to internalize the count, and makes it easier to play them without accents.

 

[Tornado]

@Pat A Flafla

Great stuff. I knew you'd have great advice as someone who has to take a group of ordinary kids and turn them into a drumline every year.

One way to force your brain to analyze this info deeper is to intruduce the possibility of failure if one hand is more tolerant of technique flaws, and the Wicked Chops pad (linked below) is wonderful at that. Where it really shines is in revealing problems transitioning from different stroke types. For example, when I started working with it playing all legato strokes or all rolls weren't a big problem, but when I played stuff like chicken and a roll, or accent grids, or especially hybrid rudiment shopping sprees, my left would frequently bounce off, and that's because though I could start one type of stroke and maintain it on the pad, the hands were still slightly different and it was the repositioning of my left hand from stroke to stroke, overutilizing the back fingers just slightly from side to side that was causing incinsistent tone production. The Wicked Chops pad highlighted this by not having enough room to accommodate this lack of refinement in my left hand.

I think transitioning to the different stroke types is a big part of this. It's why I don't personally put much stock in corrective exercises that have you working slowly on accenting the second stroke. It's just not the same stroke after a certain speed. For me anyway, maybe not for a machine like Thomas Lang. It's why drummers often practice starting rolls slow and speed them up and work on smoothing out that transition. I think you have to really analyze what is happening in the moment, and of course having an instructor watch you is very helpful.

Also, building on the buzz overlap suggestion also previously mentioned, a great sounding buzz roll will have moments where both sticks are on the head at the same time. It shouldn't be as if the sticks are tied to a pulley, where one goes up when the other goes down. I ask students to imagine the sticks and drumhead as conductors between an imaginary power source in the floor and a light bulb on the top of their head, and then imagine trying to make the bulb burn continuously without flickering due to a stick not being in contact with the head.

I have found illustrations like this useful as well. It's like a way of forcing yourself to use your ears to fix your hands. I think that "hearing" what you want to play, and expecting that sound to come out, goes a long way towards making it actually happen. That goes for lots of things like really lining up with the metronome or a line of snare drummers as well. I think you really have to use your ears and just mechanics alone can't get you there.

 

[1988fxlr]

I suspect you are already more advanced with rudiments than I am so I don’t have much to offer, but my first drum teacher used to tell me to practice my single and double stroke rolls with the snares turned off. It makes it easier to hear exactly what you’re playing while practicing without the wire response to smooth things out.

 

[JazzAcolyte]

I think you really have to use your ears and just mechanics alone can't get you there.

Yup, at a certain point I decided that I was focusing too much on what I was doing and not enough on my sound. My teacher likes to quote a line that he heard from Billy Higgins, “Swing is a sound, not a do.” I figured that maybe it was also true that “Even is a sound, not a do.” So I’m still doing all the stuff that I’m doing, but I’m also trying to listen carefully.

 

[Pat A Flafla]

I think that "hearing" what you want to play, and expecting that sound to come out, goes a long way towards making it actually happen. That goes for lots of things like really lining up with the metronome or a line of snare drummers as well. I think you really have to use your ears and just mechanics alone can't get you there.

It's amazing how often players focus on actions they think they're performing instead of opening up the aural and tactile feedback pathways to accurately evaluate what's happening when they play. I'm sure there's a good explanation for why that happens. Heck, I used to do it and I have no idea why I thought that way. Maybe it was just easier and more obvious.

 

[JazzAcolyte]

It's amazing how often players focus on actions they think they're performing instead of opening up the aural and tactile feedback pathways to accurately evaluate what's happening when they play. I'm sure there's a good explanation for why that happens. Heck, I used to do it and I have no idea why I thought that way. Maybe it was just easier and more obvious.

You’re making me feel better. I thought I was doing it because I’m a corporate drone trying to drum and not a real musician.

 

[rsmittee]

Yup, at a certain point I decided that I was focusing too much on what I was doing and not enough on my sound. My teacher likes to quote a line that he heard from Billy Higgins, “Swing is a sound, not a do.” I figured that maybe it was also true that “Even is a sound, not a do.” So I’m still doing all the stuff that I’m doing, but I’m also trying to listen carefully.

Very much this. My kid just graduated with a degree in music performance/jazz, and he likes to tell me "You gotta get it in your ear before you can get it in your hands." Hard to remember, so he tells me repeatedly.

 

[Tornado]

It's amazing how often players focus on actions they think they're performing instead of opening up the aural and tactile feedback pathways to accurately evaluate what's happening when they play. I'm sure there's a good explanation for why that happens. Heck, I used to do it and I have no idea why I thought that way. Maybe it was just easier and more obvious.

It's still something I deal with. I had an epiphany once, I was playing something and it just wasn't sounding right. Limbs were flamming, dynamics weren't right. Then, probably after I read something that put the idea in my head, I decided to pretend I was hearing a record instead of "doing" it. And amazingly, it was there. Maybe not for long at first, but that was it. Perspective change for sure.

 

[Tornado]

You’re making me feel better. I thought I was doing it because I’m a corporate drone trying to drum and not a real musician.

I think anything at first has to be that way because you're just learning. But I think after a while you have to trust that you've got the mechanics and let it go.

 

[ThomasL]

You obviously have to have the technique together, but then it is important to remember that you should be playing sounds, not motions (as pointed out above). If you can hear the difference while playing, you should be able to correct, but if you only notice it when listening to a recording, it might be trickier. Singing the rhythms is usually very helpful, but perhaps not for single strokes and buzz rolls

 

[multijd]

Be sure you are striking the drum on the same circumference with each stick. Not sure f that was mentioned but many of the other things I saw were spot on.

 

[cornelius]

I start every practice session with Stick Control at both a comfortable tempo and a challenging one...

Stick Control should really help you with evenness. Have you played the Short roll Combinations?

 

[JazzAcolyte]

Stick Control should really help you with evenness. Have you played the Short roll Combinations?

I start almost every practice session with Page 1 of Stick Control. That’s what I’m trying to even out. Been working on the rolls from the Rudimental Ritual.

Edit: I also practice buzz rolls by picking a tempo and playing quarter notes, quarter note triplets, eighth notes, triplets, 16th notes, groups of five, 16th note triplets, 32nd notes and then back down.

 

[Pat A Flafla]

I also practice buzz rolls by picking a tempo and playing quarter notes, quarter note triplets, eighth notes, triplets, 16th notes, groups of five, 16th note triplets, 32nd notes and then back down.

Metronomes aren't needed for buzz practice, but I guess that can work as long as you're trying to get zero audible daylight between even the slowest roll pulses of that exercise.

The reason I'm pretty meh on practicing buzzes with a click is that there's an ideal roll speed for each dynamic level (and each roll surface) and the tempo has nothing to do with it. (Before I get guff for this, I'm talking about closed rolls here--not open).

Side note:
When I crescendo, my roll skeleton speeds up as I get louder. I've spent a lot of time purposefully separating my buzz rolls from any sense of pulse while keeping the beat in my head instead of my hands. Of course you can plan out quintuplet roll bases or whatever for etudes and such, but I've found keeping buzz quality independent of pulse to be greatly beneficial when sightreading, when the tempo of the music might change, or when a conductor is involved.
"Oh look, that roll came out on the left because I prioritized quality. Good thing I practice left hand lead. No prob!"

 

[JazzAcolyte]

I've spent a lot of time purposefully separating my buzz rolls from any sense of pulse while keeping the beat in my head instead of my hands.

I really need to try that. I’ve had trouble finding the right buzz speed at different tempos (for example, I’ll instinctively play triplets and realize it’s not fast enough at that tempo), and you’re right, I was trying to keep the beat with my hands. Thanks for the advice.

 

[nanashi]

Papa Jo Jones would hang out at Frank's drum shop in NYC. He kept a practice pad and a pair of mismatched sticks on the counter. Wheb drummers came in, he would invite them to play an even roll, which they could not, for the most part. He would then pick up the sticks and play a roll, as smooth as silk.
I think the best way to develop a good roll is to roll. When I say roll, I mean roll for long periods of time w/o stopping, five or ten minutes per exercise. Focus on the sound, learn to compensate and make adjustments. You will also have to focus on relaxing your muscles. Do this with open and closed rolls. Go from p to fff and back, also from open to closed, and back. Remember, crush rolls do not have to be metered, it's about the sound. Again, it's all about control and sound. The more you develop your technique, the less you will need to rely on things you may not have control over, like mismatched sticks.

 

[Pat A Flafla]

Remember, crush rolls do not have to be metered, it's about the sound.

Exactly.