I've been attempting to work on my three-stroke roll lately but I haven't really received any instruction on it so I don't know if I'm doing it correctly. Does anyone have any advice for doing this?

On a side note, I've seen people advise others to use the molar technique for three-stroke rolls but I'd prefer to stay away from that.

A triple-stroke roll can be approached the same way as a double stroke, the only difference is that you let the stick hit the head three times instead of two.

I hate to be so blunt about it, but I mean, there's no RIGHT way to approach a triple-stroke roll. Period. You just play a roll, just like between a buzz roll and a double-stroke, it's just all about muscle memory and gaining control of the number of bounces.

Hope that helped.

Happy Drumming!
B

I´ve just started practicing triplet strokes myself. I assume you´re talking about the open three stroke roll, in the same sense as a double stroke roll and as opposed to the buzz-style three stroke roll. Anyway I find that it helps a lot to think about the third stroke! The first stroke will come from a combination of wrist and arm, the second is like a natural bounce that I try to follow with my fingers which are all resting on the stick, and the third and last stroke is when I really us those fingers to make the last stroke just as clear as the preceding onces. Another way to think about it is to imagine a subtle accent on the first and third stroke. This gives me a feeling of really "following through" the rudiment and not just spasming it out!

I would be very quality-oriented practicing this, and not worry about speed. Speed will come naturally once you´re doing it with good quality. This approach is great because you can have fun playing well in ANY tempo. If it´s all about speed you won´t be having fun until it is really fast, and you´ll never get to that point anyway because the muscle memory has not been built properly. Just a little discovery I´ve made for myself lately! Practice slow but well, and also make sure you get some real height so that you´re actually working out your chops.

Happy drumming!

One thing I try to do to practice this is to slow it down a bit and play each individual note in a crescendo. This counteracts the loss of control on the third note when trying to just rebound twice. As you speed this up you will lose some of the volume on the second and third not, but it will even out and make them equal strength.

Tan

Isolate each hand.

When learning/perfecting/reinforcing a double stroke roll, an exercise like the ol' Sanford Double Beat can be used to reinforce the necessary rebound stroke on each hand. The second half of the ol' Sanford Double Beat is actually a triple stroke exercise... I wonder why. (hint, hint) Working it at various tempi and then applying it in context will improve your triple strokes -- in triple stroke rolls, flam taps, and wherever else.

Personally, I also use some basic sextuplet exercises as templates for improvised triplet stroke roll exercises, just changing the sticking to threes instead of singles. Kinda similar in concept to the old SCV Threes exercise, which you can find over on SnareScience:

http://www.snarescience.com/exercises/scv-threes.pdf

...and here's '92 SCV playing it on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s75YHdbGK3o

Thanks guys, this helps a lot!



Thanks, this is great advice! I think this was my problem before. I basically kept trying to play threes and push the tempo but I ended up using bad technique. The last couple days I've instead been playing an exercise (Cubed Q by Bill Bachman for those who are familiar) over and over and over again. I've been following your advice, practicing with great quality with a slower tempo rather than just going as fast as I can. This approach has definitely helped me to vastly improve, even in such a short time.



Thanks, I'll definitely look into that exercise!

My current snare instructor at Ravens gave this great tip when working on threes. When you play a Triple Stroke roll don't try and force things, but instead utilize a 'Throw, Bounce, Catch' idea. To get a better grip on that idea take a tennis ball (or similar bounce-y object) and throw it onto the floor (or table, actually) bounce it like a basketball (as in push it back down using your wrist muscles) and then catch it palm down in your hand. This simulates the wrist and then the squeezing action at the end needed to execute a triple stroke roll.

thanks for the exercise, this is what Im looking for.. hehe

The SCV threes excersize skydog posted is awesome I have a similar one I play that stems from my high school line. Another trick I have done that helped clean my triples up is playing a 4/4 triplet pattern rlr lrl check pattern then rrr lll with the triplet pattern. There should be no difference in speed or sound between the 2. Go for clarity of each stroke before you speed it up the add a few more ticks to the met' clean and repeat.