How To Get Faster At Double Stroke Rolls!

How To Get Faster At Double Stroke Roll

Get asked this so much in the sessions here!

Playing fast, smooth double strokes is a massive skill for any drummer looking to play well. How do you get faster?

The short answer is you practice it, but practicing it in the right way is really important! So many drummers just try to play fast and declare that it’s “hard”. But it’s only hard if you try to miss steps out! Start slow, keep it smooth and use your metronome at a speed where you can play it comfortably for at least a minute or so. Then notch up the metronome a bit at a time until you hit your “improvement zone” - the point where you can still successfully play the roll, but it’s just a bit of a challenge. Live in this zone, stick with it and improvement is inevitable. Go for it!

Technique-wise, there’ll be a point where wrist motions for each stroke transition into “bounced doubles”, as described and demonstrated here. I find that starts to happen at around 100bpm when playing 16th notes (4 hits per beat).

It’s definitely worth practicing the bounced double/finger control motion separately and individually alongside the metronome method. This’ll get the motion internalized and it’ll then automatically begin to work at speed for you if you stick at it.

The BEST thing about this sort of hand speed-building practice is you can do it anywhere, you don’t need access to a kit!

Have fun, work hard and please let me know if any questions,

Mike :)

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Have fun and thanks so much for watching.

Mike :)