A Percussionist's Notebook

 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...

 I react to a popped flam like a vampire reacts to garlic. It has the same affect as when a wind player plays a B♭ when they are supposed to play a B𝄮.  A flam played correctly is a primary note preceded immediately by a grace note. The grace note is played softer than the primary and in theory doesn't have a time value.  Right Flam as written and played When played correctly, a flam has two distinct sounds. A popped flam happens when both sticks strike the drum at the same time. Popped Flam as played Imagine throwing a rock into a pond. When it strikes the water, ripples travel outward in circles. If two rocks are thrown at the same time, each produces its own set of ripples. When those two sets of ripples meet they cancel each other out. By replacing ripples in the water with sound waves in the air you get the same effect. The difference is when the sound waves intersect this immediate cancellation is so abrupt that it gives a popping or choked sound. A single tap on a...