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Going over the 'hump'

 Hump:  The process of playing an open roll slowly with a controlled bounce, gradually speeding up to a natural bounce and back again to a controlled bounce with a smooth and undetectable transition from control to bounce and back to control. 

This is normally done during a competition and it is expected that it is an OPEN or RUDIMENTAL roll. Sometimes at the fastest speed the roll would morph into a CLOSED or CONCERT roll. The point of this is to show the drummer's ability to control the rebound of his/her sticks. I have always used a diagram to explain this to my students. The first diagram describes the process when the control-bounce-control transition takes place when the drummer can play only so fast at controlled and only so slowly at the bounce.

If the drummer can only make this change at this one point (B) it will not be a smooth transition. But if the student can learn to play the controlled bounce faster than the natural bounce and conversely the natural bounce slower than the controlled bounce, the transition can take place at multiple places on the graph.

Now the drummer can play the controlled bounce from point (A) to as fast as point (D) before allowing the stick to rebound naturally. On the return the natural rebound leaves point (E) and can slow to the speed of point (B) to switch to controlled. Obviously this ability shows good control of the sticks.
The practice pad is the perfect medium for learning this control. Since it produces more bounce with less force than a drum head, the grip can be tightened ever so slightly training the muscles to control this faster bounce. By relaxing the grip, the stick will rebound with less force translating into a slower natural bounce. To really speed up the controlled bounce practicing on a pillow (which gives absolutely no natural bounce).


  

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  1. RonaldDecember 1, 2020 at 6:12 AM

    When we were discussing this on Sunday I said maybe I had learned it from Smokey and then passed it on to you. After reading your explanation and seeing the diagrams, I can assure you that Smokey would NEVER have taught me that! I had to read it twice before I got it completely. I assume your students do, otherwise you would not continue to use it. BTW, in my searching for "hump" on the internet, I didn't find it, but I did find a drum site with a blog you might be interested in looking at. https://www.drumambition.com/

    ReplyDelete
  2. Far Side of FiftyDecember 1, 2020 at 10:50 AM

    Interesting! Hope you are staying safe!

    ReplyDelete

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