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The Four stroke ruff

The Youth Symphony posted the audition music for their 2020-2021 season. One of the requirements for snare drum is to perform the Four stroke ruff.
This is how I explain and teach it to my students:

The traditional way of playing this figure is to play alternating grace notes starting with the Left hand and ending with the primary stroke on the Right.

For many young students, the idea of playing a series of single strokes fast enough is difficult because they lack the ability to utilize 'finger' control on the stick. This ends up sounding stiff and too slow for the proper execution. For this reason I offer an alternative version to playing it.


The concept is to think of it as starting with a Left ruff followed immediately by a Right tap.
Another way of thinking about it is to think of it as an aborted 5 stroke roll. The regular 5 stroke roll is played (rrllR), an aborted 5 stroke roll would be (rrlR). Either way should produce the correct sound of the Four stroke ruff.

Regardless of the 2 different ways to play this, it's important to note that in no case should the Four stroke ruff be played as a regular Ruff.
A few years ago I was playing a rehearsal/concert in which the snare drummer had a Four stroke ruff written in his part. He played it as a regular Ruff. This was a man in his 30's, playing since High School and at the time a member of one of the Military bands. Disappointing but also the reality of some of the percussion education happening today.








































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