Page 15 - 2017-BMR-September

Mind the Ornaments:
Setting Your Students Up for Audition Success with

Flams, Ruffs and Rolls

Jordan Stern

As the new school year begins and as smooth and beautiful as a cellist’s the stick bounce until it runs out of
we are preoccupied with marching arco legato. The buzz roll actually energy. Then, ask them to play some
band, we also need to focus on setting creates the illusion of a long tone, with “dead strokes,” in which they put
our students up for audition success. many strikes of the drum in quick a firm squeeze on the fulcrum and
In many years of judging percussion succession causing the heads and snare push the stick down onto the head
auditions, I have observed a large units to continuously vibrate. Unlike without rebounding back off of the
variance in how students approach the metered, exact subdivided sound head. Next, explain that a good buzz
concert style ornaments on the snare we strive to create feels somewhere
drum, and that success with these with a double A good buzz stroke between these
ornaments has usually correlated with stroke roll, a buzz requires the student two extremes.
the students’ overall success at the roll should sound to employ their Austin Symphony
audition. The following suggestions may like white noise, fingers, wrist and arm timpanist Tony
help you in helping your students refine much like tearing simultaneously. The Edwards teaches
their orchestral snare drum ornaments. a piece of paper fingers help to control a “squeeze and
in half. In concert release” technique.
Begin with the End in Mind: the initial squeeze of
Creating an Ideal Aural Image style audition the fulcrum, the wrist This technique
for Orchestral Snare Drum music, a student helps to motivate the involves squeezing
As with any instrument in the should employ initial stroke, and the firmly on the
band, it is important for the teacher buzz rolls unless arm provides a fulcrum at the
to possess a precise aural concept double-stroke rolls follow-through motion. moment of impact
of the concert snare drum. In my are specifically with the drum, but
opinion, the ideal sound image of the indicated. then immediately
There are two main schools of relaxing in order to let the stick
orchestral snare drum is the playing
thought when it comes to concert bounce as many times as possible. A
of Elden “Buster” Bailey, who was a
style snare drum rolls. Some players good buzz stroke requires the student
long time member of the New York
choose to let the sticks bounce more to employ their fingers, wrist and
Philharmonic Orchestra. Encourage
times on pianissmo rolls (i.e. around arm simultaneously. The fingers help
your students to listen to the recordings
6-7 bounces per stroke) than they to control the initial squeeze of the
of the New York Philharmonic under
would on fortissimo rolls (i.e. between fulcrum, the wrist helps to motivate
the direction of Leonard Bernstein,
3-4 bounces per stroke). Other players the initial stroke, and the arm provides
for example Rimsky-Korsakov’s
strive for 3 bounces per stroke on a follow-through motion (continuing
Scheherazade and Capriccio Espagnol,
every roll they play, regardless of the to push-downwards towards the head
and Nielsen’s Clarinet Concerto to
dynamic. I prefer the aforementioned after the fulcrum has been relaxed, in
hear particular examples of Bailey’s
style in which the density of the roll is order to extend the length of the buzz).
fine snare drumming.
variable, depending on the dynamic. Encourage your students to practice
Buzz Rolls: Creating the Illusion To work on refining the buzz roll, letting the release of one stick’s buzz
of a Long Tone encourage your students to play a few overlap or dovetail with the initiation
The purpose of a buzz roll is to free bounces, in which they strike the of the next stick’s onset at a slow
create a sustained sound that is ideally drum, relax the hand, and then let tempo. This helps them to understand

Bandmasters Review • September 2017 13 Texas Bandmasters Association