4 ways to make your timpani rolls smoother

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as you know, i'm currently the 'lame duck' assistant timpanist for the met orchestra and i'm currently playing i puritani by bellini. how do i make my timpani rolls sound smooth when i'm playing with articulate mallets?

in this video i'll show you two exercises and four variables that you can tweak to give you the ultimate smooth timpani roll.
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ABOUT ME
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CREDITS
shot and produced by rob knopper
edited by adam tan

[robknopperstudio]

how do YOU make your timpani rolls smoother? let me know in the comments below, i'd love to hear from you! and if you haven't already, give me a thumbs up if you enjoyed this video :) thanks for watching!

[pick]

Rob, when I studied with the late Fred Hinger ( former principal timpanist Met ) he taught that the motion of the mallet needs to have an elliptical pattern in order to lessen the "slap" of the mallet when it strikes the timpani head. This motion is initiated by using the forearm. (Hinger had Popeye size forearms.) This should produce a "singing sound" from the drum. One of his exercises was to use a fresh tennis ball dropped from eight or so inches above onto the timpani head.  You will hear the most beautiful sound from the timpani. Then he would have me use two tennis balls bouncing them alternately and just "following" them with a cupped hand. When rolling one must cradle the mallet so that it produces the same free sound as the ball.He also advocated using a hands over (like snare drum position) for articulation because the hands in that positon allowed them to remain on the head a fraction longer reducing the amount that the head can vibrate.

[samhoffacker]

Do you think you could make a video about using a chair on timpani and physically positioning the timpani to best benefit your technique?

[pkrnger]

Approaches to timpani vary immensely among individual artists. Look at the amazing differences between outstanding world class timpanists Rainer Seegers and Wieland Welzel, both of the Berlin Philharmonic. They both can be seen in free clips online, with much more available at Digital Concert Hall. In his loud rolls, Wieland lets his index finger come off and to the side of the stick, with the fulcrum being between the thumb and inside of the upper portion of the middle finger, allowing for an amazing rebound, perhaps the highest amplitude achieved by any timpanist I've ever watched! For legato rolls at forte and above, I would opt for the softest mallet and slowest stroke possible, with as little finger pressure on the stick as possible. When there's no time to change mallets and I am using a more articulate mallet, I would use a faster roll speed, but somewhat less dynamic to still blend in with the ensemble. Prof. Richard Hochrainer of the Vienna Philharmonic cautioned against using a roll speed for timpani that was too fast, saying that timpani should never sound like a tuba and always contain the feeling of adding energy and suspense to the sound of the orchestra. Contrast the different styles and sounds of roll playing of Rainer Seegers and Wieland Welzel with those of the US masters, such as Cloyd Duff, Roland Koloff, David Herbert, Vic Firth, Saul Goodman, Jauvon Gilliam, and Edward Stephan. They can all be seen on Youtube clips.

[physics_boyy]

Play a measure of half notes, quarter notes, quarter note triplets, eighth notes, eighth note triplets, sixteenth notes, sixteenth note fivelets, sixteenth note triplets, and thirty-second notes. Then, slow back down. If you do this across all drums and all pitches, you get a really good feel about what speeds to do where. Saul Goodman proposes something similar in Modern Method for Timpani.

[streetrags]

This is great! It definitely helps to start with even hands. But on top of this, a bigger challenge is keeping the roll smooth through major dynamic changes. Most of my roll work the last few years has just been 4 measure swells (2up 2down) of gradually more dense rhythms. Obviously some drums/heads make it easier than others to execute :).

[MYOB]

Just think of Galloping Gurdy.
Your job is to merely assist the head's vibration to keep it going and increase the amplitude, not the velocity.
You will get a glorious welling up of sound with nary a headstrike to be heard.

[bojack]

New to the timpani, but enjoyed the video. I also like the way the video is produced, especially the micro editing of dead time between sentences.

[junethanoschurchill]

This was a great video! There were a lot of tips you gave that I'd never even thought about. I really like that you add a bit of fun into the editing of your videos.

[joekugelblitz]

this video is just in time, as I desperately need to work on my timpani rolls ;o)) ... thank you for your time and dedication you put into these videos ... cheers, Jochen

[sp]

Ever considered switching to German grip for rolls? I was taught by an old European guy and for smooth rolls, I used mallets with a harder core but soft cover and heavier towards the player's hands.

[CraigSchweitzerCNIM]

Great and helpful summary: Speed, Control, Distance, Angle! Thank you!

[russ]

Thanks Rob! I’m starting to like kind of play timpani, and rolls are one of my weakest points. This video really helped.

[kristenshinermcguire]

Excellent and very helpful! AM sharing with my Studio at Nazareth College :) Thank you, Rob!

[skroll]

Brilliant! I needed this right now. Looking forward to testing it out!!!

[Ra]

Just learning, thanks for the vid--could have done without some of the silly sound effects, but the information presented here was great, thanks!

[sblastois]

This is a suggestion, but timpani rolls are just single stroke rolls, and I was playing the snare solo Tornado by Mitch Markovich. Tornado has many parts where it challenges your single strokes, so what I did is that I worked on isolating by just using my fingers (from slow tempos to fast) and getting a solid grip with just the thumb and index finger. After that, I not only could play Tornado, but I had very clean single stroke rolls, perfect for Timpani!

[arlinnjeans]

Great video! Really good refresher in the technique since it's been a while since I used to play in college.

[ijuldzulfadli]

So damnly hard to find such channel. You're doing a great job helping perc students. Anyway i've turned on the bell, wish u keep making great videos.

[DouglasLippi]

It all depends on the pitch vs size of drum, mallet, head type etc and also what other instruments are doing and how the roll fits into the piece. That is, the purpose of the roll. So for any roll at any given moment you adjust until you get the sound you're looking for. You do have to commit to the mallet type though before you start.