@Auspicious I have a few pads laying around at work and had some free time to do a quick recording of how I play a double stroke focusing on the right hand. Things might not sound as clean and even as I'd like, but I was focusing on keeping my right hand in the picture...apparently I use a lot more arm motion than I thought (which making this video pointed out to me
) Anyways...I hope it provides you another perspective to look at and sorry for the crappy phone picture and background noise.
The first part is what I consider to be the prerequisite to playing the double stroke the way I approach it...a grip loose enough to let the stick rebound and pivot to almost vertical through my thumb and index fulcrum. I think that's maybe what beatdat meant with "opening the hands up"?
The second part is a roll played from slow to fast and back to demonstrate how the motions remain generally the same and only differ in how large or small they get depending on tempo. At the faster tempos the wrist gets used less and it becomes more of an arm motion, but the fingers keep doing the exact same thing.
The third part is just a 2/4 version of the exercise I posted earlier.
I would like to point out that I do not claim to have good technique or rudimental skills, but it has been enough to get me through most musical settings for over 30 years now. When I still could be called "a working musician", I've found it was all I ever needed. It worked for rolls, for flourishes on the hihats, for fast rolls around the toms, etc... The same motions wormed their way into my playing in flams as a sort of push-pull continuous motion thing too. It also doesn't rely on the surface as much, I can play them equal enough on low tuned floortoms as on the snare or hihat...just requires a bit more snap from the fingers on the more mushy surfaces.