DRUMMER CAFE

I'm a little wary about asking technique questions on here because it looks like most of you are far more experienced drummers than I am. My questions may seem a little simplistic. There are a couple techniques that I have yet to master however and one in particular frustrates me. That is the 'press' roll. On the snare drum. I have yet to figure out exactly how that is done and am always impressed when I hear someone do that very well, making a hissing sound. Within your ability to explain that on a forum, what are the basic mechanics of doing a press roll, I.e. grip, stick action etc. BTW, I hold my sticks left hand thumb up and right hand palm over, not the traditional grip so to speak.

You mean a "multiple bounce roll" or a "press roll" or a "closed roll" or "buzz roll". The trick is to get as many bounces from the sticks with the least amount of tension or pressure with the hands.

Just to start, Hold your forearm roughly parallel to the floor and drum head. Cock your wrist back so the stick is about 6 inches from the head. Following the natural arch of your wrist, drop your hand and the stick to the head. Notice I said "drop" not push, throw or stab... Keep your hand relaxed and only grip the stick as tight as needed to not drop it altogether. When the stick hits the head, just let the stick do what it pleases. Don't squeeze your fingers tight, or pick it up, just drop it loosely and let it bounce. Notice that the stick bounces on it's own with the bounces getting a little closer together as it loses momentum. With a closed roll you're trying to encourage as many of those small bounces as possible.

In order to close the space between the first bounce and the next, a slight bit of pressure must be applied to the stick with the fingers, particularly the middle finger for matched grip players. Try this: when the stick hits the head, close your hand - I.e. pull up with all your fingers (not your wrist) reasonably hard. Notice that the stick bounces close together, but doesn't bounce for very long and quickly stops against the head.  Do the same again, but don't pull up so much with the fingers. Loosen off until you can get as many bounces as possible without the initial gap. Don't choke the stick with your middle finger, just pull up enough to help tighten up the bounces.

Try it with one hand at a time at first. Just repeat the same motion until you can get the right "pressure" to control the bounces without stopping them or tensing up. The whole motion should be relaxed. With a little encouragement, the stick will do the work for you. Each time, let all of the momentum bounce its way out of the stick until it stops on the head. Then pick the stick up and do it again.

When you have some control over the bounces with both hands just play alternating strokes and try to get as many bounces as possible. Do it slowly, even if there is some space between when one hand leaves off and the other starts. First concentrate on getting lots of bounces and staying relaxed through the entire motion. As you get it, you can speed up, close the roll and you're off to the races. A good way to work on this is to play a bar of 8th notes as single strokes and then a bar of 8th notes as buzz strokes. This will help get your hands used to alternating between the two motions. The wrist movement should stay the same, you just adjust the pressure with your finger(s) to create the buzz.

Also, check out Bart's 5-Minute Lessons - there's something in there called "The Rebound Game" - check it out.

Thanks to both of you. So, if I understand this in a nutshell, it is less control of the sticks with ones grip, not more.(?) That's likely at least a part of the trouble I have in doing it well. I'm always amazed when I see guys effortlessly zip a long one of those off like no big deal as an accent put on the end etc. With a distinctive shimmery hisssss. I've always liked to play hard/heavy etc and have neglected alot of more subtle, basic drum techniques. That's the kind of drum stuff I'm working on now and giving my attention to. Also, to allow the sticks to 'do their thing', seems like you need pretty tight tension on the batter head of the snare to get any duration out ofthat kind of roll otherwise it'd peter out quickly. I hear guys doing quite long press rolls and can quite figure out how that keep that going like that.

I've done press rolls for several years. It just takes a desire to learn one hand rolls, and many hours of practice. That's the hard part.      I can do short ones during songs, but I've gave up on doing long ones.    

He's right, it takes a lot of practice. If you get around to practicing it, don't get discouraged, it's incredibly easy once you get the hang of it, I find myself improvising with them all the time

[off-topic maybe?]
I think I could do this press roll when I played with a traditional grip long ago. Now I don't think I can with the matched and heavy playing grip. Does anybody think it may depend on the grip, too? (I don't think so.)

I think the first thing to understand press rolls is understanding the strokes (the motion of the sticks) are exactly like an open roll. The difference between open and pressed rolls is how the fingers work to produce rebound. Just like open rolls, pressed rolls have a "skeleton" stroking system -- typically eighth-note triplets, sixteenths, or even sextuplets. Whichever "skeleton" you're using will determine the intensity of the roll, and the more strokes you use per quarter- or eighth-note will decrease the number of bounces required to produce a press roll. So if you're using eighth-note triplets as your skeleton, you need probably twice as many bounces in your press roll then if you use sextuplets, because there's half the space between strokes in an eighth-note triplet from a sextuplet.

Bart is the first person I've ever heard actually counting rebounds for a press roll, which is dang impressive to me. I learned by just "crushing" strokes, one by one in quarter-note succession, until each hand could produce a crushed stroke that sounded like those in a press roll. Then I started putting them together and worked on smoothing them out. I have no idea how many bounces I produce. Wish I knew Bart back when I was learning how to do it!

Heh. That's a pretty good intro lesson but his buzz rolls stink. They pulse too much.

I think this is a good example of all our different levels - and ears - and priorities.

I personally think many people would be just Delighted to play a buzz roll that way.

Bottom line - he's a very good teacher, and a very good player.

A great buzz roll is an art in and of itself.

There are some orchestral players that have buzz rolls so perfected that it sounds like sand being evenly poured over an outstretched piece of tin foil.

Besides all the other good advice in this thread, I'd just add to do them slow and deliberate when you are practicing them. Then work them up to speed.