Triple Stoke / Fusion Hand Ostinato

[techtrax]

Haven't seen this technique discussed much. Three quick strokes in one hand playing three notes in succession followed by a rest, usually on the hi hats or ride. Here's what I mean (consider this a 16th or 32nd note grid with 'O' being notes and ' - ' being rests).

Pattern 1: O O O -
Pattern 2: - O O O
Pattern 3: O - O O
Pattern 4: O O - O

I've been really trying to nail the motion for this one and it still seems to elude me somewhat. Slow-Medium tempo is no problem, but faster tempos are tricky.

Some of the methods I practice:

Start the first note on the upstroke, followed by a controlled finger snap (think push-pull motion), followed by a harder wrist stroke - Seems like a good way to play an accented slosh hat on the shank that fills in the rest position. Also works for two strokes on the ride bow followed by an accented stick shoulder on the bell. This motion works, but feels a little unnatural in the wrist for me, especially as it gets faster.

Moeller Style. Down, Tap, Up! I don't think this needs more explanation since we're on a drum forum.

Down stroke followed by two controlled finger strokes. Similar to a traditional moeller stroke but less reliant on bounce and more focus on two quick finger twitches for the 2nd and 3rd notes.

Controlled bounce. I've spent the least time working on this method since I really like to feel all of my strokes as discrete hits. Perhaps this is the method that is used for really quick passages and I just need more practice.

Alternate finger strokes. This isn't something I've invested any practice time in, but theoretically it could work. A wrist stroke followed by two finger strokes, using different fingers (therefore a different muscle group for each note). The most natural motion here would be wrist, pinky/ring muscle group, then the middle finger. Since I consider my practice time valuable, I don't usually like to commit until I have some level of certainty that something is physiologically possible!

How do you guys tackle this sort of thing? Any advice?

Cheers!

[cp84]

I do this a lot in my medium tempo (150 - 200 bpm) jazz comping on the snare (the triplets are very fast).

I think that if you want the really fast stuff at low volume (like i do) then you're looking at controlled bounce.

Try and use your whole arm to control the stick. Its about moving in a way that is maximising your use of the kinetic energy of the stick.

[UBERG]

It largely depends on dynamics ie which note in the group of three do you want stronger or accented. The easiest and fastest way to play would be the wrist playing the 1st note and then two finger taps on the way up using the Moeller technique.

[toddbishop]

It really shouldn't require anything fancy- people have been playing this pattern for a long time without necessarily knowing anything about Moeller. I think I play it with my thumb on top of the stick, with a wrist stroke on the first note and finger on the last two, up to around qtr=140-150. At one point it helped me to work on that technique slowly, all full strokes- don't make the first note a down stroke as you mentioned.

[MattA]

I've found that at high speeds I naturally gravitate toward Moeller for these triple strokes. Especially when I'm playing on the ride where I tend to use these strokes the most, the nature of the Moeller gives me personally the most speed and control.

[Boomka]

Haven't seen this technique discussed much. Three quick strokes in one hand playing three notes in succession followed by a rest, usually on the hi hats or ride. Here's what I mean (consider this a 16th or 32nd note grid with 'O' being notes and ' - ' being rests).

Pattern 1: O O O -
Pattern 2: - O O O
Pattern 3: O - O O
Pattern 4: O O - O

I've been really trying to nail the motion for this one and it still seems to elude me somewhat. Slow-Medium tempo is no problem, but faster tempos are tricky.

Some of the methods I practice:

Start the first note on the upstroke, followed by a controlled finger snap (think push-pull motion), followed by a harder wrist stroke - Seems like a good way to play an accented slosh hat on the shank that fills in the rest position. Also works for two strokes on the ride bow followed by an accented stick shoulder on the bell. This motion works, but feels a little unnatural in the wrist for me, especially as it gets faster.

Moeller Style. Down, Tap, Up! I don't think this needs more explanation since we're on a drum forum.

Down stroke followed by two controlled finger strokes. Similar to a traditional moeller stroke but less reliant on bounce and more focus on two quick finger twitches for the 2nd and 3rd notes.

Controlled bounce. I've spent the least time working on this method since I really like to feel all of my strokes as discrete hits. Perhaps this is the method that is used for really quick passages and I just need more practice.

Alternate finger strokes. This isn't something I've invested any practice time in, but theoretically it could work. A wrist stroke followed by two finger strokes, using different fingers (therefore a different muscle group for each note). The most natural motion here would be wrist, pinky/ring muscle group, then the middle finger. Since I consider my practice time valuable, I don't usually like to commit until I have some level of certainty that something is physiologically possible!

How do you guys tackle this sort of thing? Any advice?

Cheers!

It depends on the sound I'm going for, but I use variations of all these ideas. At medium/medium up tempos I use what you might call a "down stroke" followed by two strokes essentially on the way up. This tends to give more weight to the long note in the combination. I suppose this corresponds most closely to your Moeller description. At quicker tempos, I'm using something like what John Riley calls "The Drop Stroke" but using my fingers to get a straight articulation. At that point, I'm really not thinking about playing 3 notes, but just one - i.e. the initial stroke. The rest are merely a consequence. Not that they aren't controlled, mind you.

I'm not sure I ever consciously thought about it, it just happened as a matter of course - i.e. experimenting and finding the most relaxed way to get the sound I was looking for. I think this is a bit like the BD technique question in that some of the techniques people are going to great lengths to describe were never conceived in such formal terms, they were simply a response to trying to get certain things to happen. I found out, after many years of playing, that I had been using a "Ball-Toe" method to get quick doubles on my BD. All I know is that as a teenager I heard my favorite players playing these cool drag-like ideas on the BD and I was trying to emulate that. The technique came as a matter of finding the easiest way I could to repeatedly get the sound with as little effort as possible. Little did I know... :)

[Coldhardsteel]

The name Triple-stoke denotes a concept similar to Double-stroke. Thus, very simply, to perform a triple stroke roll correctly you must turn your wrist three times on each hand. It's just as simple and harnessing rebound, using finger control, and playing from your wrist and your fulcrum.