freeing up my hands for different sticking combinations in a continuous roll

[joeneau]

Hi there,
I'm having a bit of trouble freeing up my hands for rolls/solos.

Basically i'm working souly on the snare drum at the moment with continuous 1/16th notes and want to get better at soloing/throwing up accents.

Obviously the simplist thing to start with is alternate 1/6th notes (a single stroke roll) but i figured that being able to seemlessly blend in lots of different sticking combinations will lend its self to certain accent patterns and also mena that when i start moving this around the kit it will sound alot more interesting.

I'm familiar and fairly competent with many of the basic rudements i could use in this. (paradiddles and all their variations and inversions, but i'm having trouble throwing these into the continous 1/16th note roll without having to think about them too much or getting my hands caught up.

Does anybody have any advice, or study materials they could point me towards?

thanks in advance!

[larryace]

You sound like you know what you want to do, you just need to work on it more. It's a brain teaser, sticking is, and the only thing I've found that works is focused practice. When you practice, ideally you should be working on stuff that you can't do very well. In your

case, you want get control of different stickings. Good goal. Do bars of single, double and triple paradiddles interspersed with bars of your alternating 16'ths, first on just the snare, then after you're really comfortable with that, orchestrate them around the kit.

Do them slow. I have a saying, if you can't play it slow, you can't play it fast cleanly

Going slow is the quickest way to get fast. It's upside down. I love drumset.

[wy yung]

I'm familiar and fairly competent with many of the basic rudements i could use in this. (paradiddles and all their variations and inversions, but i'm having trouble throwing these into the continous 1/16th note roll without having to think about them too much or getting my hands caught up.

Does anybody have any advice, or study materials they could point me towards?


It sounds to me like all you need is time. Just keep practicing and eventually your hands will operate without you having to think too much. When playing technique at high speeds on a pad or snare I simply think of accents. My hands compensate for any sticking automatically. Simply because they've done it so often over thousands of hours.

Two of my favorite books to work and teach from are the Master Studies books by Joe Morello. Working from these will certainly help. And as larry so wisely wrote, work slowly. Slow movements help your muscles develop memory. Combine this will a metronome set to slow BPM's such as 30 or 40 at 16th, or 50 or 60 set at 8ths and accuracy will develop alongside memory.

Perhaps also take a lesson. If you are in the US there are many many great teachers. Try to utilize them. If I lived in a place like America I'd be travelling to see guys like Steve Fydick and Steve Houghton all the time.

[joeneau]

Thank you both for your response, I think all i need is time and to slow down a bit!

and thanks wy yung for the book advice! I actually work from that book and also 'Syncopated Rolls For The Modern Drummer' both of which are really helping!