Snare drum technique. One-handed “Scheherezade”

Snare drum technique. One-handed "Scheherezade"

Some weeks ago I saw an interesting video by Tony Ames (principal percussion with the National Symphony Orchestra) on which he can be seen playing the famous snare drum excerpt from the third movement of “Scheherezade” (N. Rimsky-korsakov) using just one hand.

You know that I always try anything that leads to a technical improvement or adds a new music-making possibility to my arsenal. As soon as I saw that video I knew that I had to try that.

Here is the part that we are dealing with:

Here is my one-handed interpretation, emulating Tony Ames:

I really like this solution, as it produces a very atractive phrasing: the seven stroke roll is nicely tapered down, resulting in a very elegant and musical diminuendo. Also, the hand alternation cannot be heard, making for a very smooth and homogeneous phrasing.

Despite what it may seem, that is not difficult to play (if we know how to do it). In my previous article “Snare drum technique. The roll”, I wrote about rebound control and included a video showing up to eight controlled rebounds.

This is what I do on the video: I play a six-stroke controlled rebound with my right hand and resolve it with my left one to complete the seven stroke roll; then, I use my right hand again to strike the remaining three eight notes of the bar. I am also using a “trick” that I explained in the above mentioned article: I am moving horizontally across the head to facilitate bouncing but, if you noticed it, I am not moving my stick as much as Mr. Ames does (I am also moving more in a diagonal line instead of “vertically”, trying not to get an evident timbrical change).

Moved by curiosity, I wanted to check if there was visual corespondence with what I heard and, using an audio editor, the graphic result of this one-handed “Scheherezade” is a follows (bare in mind that a double wave is featured because the audio was recorded in stereo):

You can clearly see every discrete stroke of the seven-stroke roll, tapered down into a progresive diminuendo (see that the amplitude of each wave is smaller than the preceding one). We should not hear with our eyes, but it is always a relief to visually confirm our hearing impression.

I would love to know your opinion on the musical result that this way of playing produces. I will soon post an article on the many ways that this famous excerpt can be played.

Give me your opinion!, Let me know!

…et in Arcadia ego.