I love brushes.
Brushes are more than a tool with which
one plays the drums; they are an instrument in their own right. Brushes
are used in different music styles, but their most extended applications
are found in jazz.
Most people outside the world of jazz
identify brushes with ballads and mellow or folksy tunes, but those who
are more familiar with them know the wide range of moods that brushes
can facilitate. Brushes can produce many kinds of sound, from soft to
loud, from delicate to harsh, and everything in between. It’s an
extremely responsive instrument, rich of nuances.
Although brushes were allegedly first
patented in 1913, brush technique was never standardized. To this day
there are no official brush rudiments or notation. Over the years I
studied with different instructors and none of them shared the same
technique or methods.
Certain drummer’s styles involve
elaborate patterns that are often written down on paper like drawings,
with lines and arrows, dots, dashes, curves and whatnot. Others stay as
close as possible to sticks technique to minimize technical adjustments.
Brush technique involves sweeping motions, circular motions, vertical strokes, oblique strokes… like I said, it’s an instrument!
While I believe there are no substitutes
to one-on-one lessons, here I would like to share some basic concepts
and exercises to get you started. Perhaps this will interest you enough
to make you look for more.
While
every drummer’s approach to brushes varies, we can still find common
ground in the sound they produce. The two main categories at the base of
brush playing are long and short sounds.
As opposed to sticks, where the duration
of the sound of a stroke is the sum of the velocity of the stick’s
rebound plus the decay/resonance of whatever surface it is hitting, short
sounds on brushes are a different matter. A traditional brush is
constituted of multiple metal wires, all these wires will never hit a
surface at the same time, which causes a brush stroke to have its
typical fuzziness. There are multiple ways to compensate for this
fuzziness, or to enhance it, depending on the musical context, but I
will not address this subject here; it is too vast and would deserve a
separate article.
Instead, I will share some introductory exercises aimed at developing a good legato sound, which belongs to the long category.
When you practice these exercises you
will notice that producing an even, consistent sound is a challenge. It
is important to keep in mind that sound quality is of paramount
importance, and I recommend to persevere until you can comfortably
execute these exercises free of any unwanted accents. A good legato
sound is even in volume and constant in its timbre and quality. You can
add “personality” to it once you achieve full control.
Furthermore, you will notice that both
the angle at which you hold the brush and the pressure you apply to the
drumhead greatly affect the sound you produce. Experiment with different
approaches and remember that your posture should feel relaxed.
It should be noted that brushes should
be played on coated drum heads. When a drum head has been used for a
long time it loses its finish – it becomes smoother and provides less
friction against the wires the brushes are made of, resulting in lower
volume and responsiveness.
Exercise Number 1
Left
Hand circles (see fig.1). Set the metronome at a slow tempo (35 bpm is a
good start) and play circles moving clockwise around the surface of the
snare drum, staying always close to the edge. A full circle equals one
quarter note. Start at 12 o’clock and play an accent every time you
complete a circle (your brushes will meet the click of the metronome
every time at 12 o’clock). To articulate an accent, apply extra pressure
towards the head, which results in a slightly louder sound.
Exercise Number 2
Right Hand circles (see fig.2). Same as
exercise 1, this time the right hand is playing the exercise, in a
counter-clockwise direction.
Exercise number 3
Two circles, unison (see fig.3). Same
metronome settings and circles directions as in exercises 1 and 2. In
this case two circles are played simultaneously. Each brush is now
occupying half the surface of the snare drum head; accents are still
played on all downbeats. Note that while the figure shows two
intersecting circles, the brushes never meet in that area.
Exercise number 4
Two circles, alternated (see fig.4).
Same metronome settings and circles directions as in exercises 1 and 2.
The two circles are now out of phase by 180 degrees. In other words, the
right hand is playing accents on beats 1 and 3 (in a 4/4 measure) and
the left hand is playing accents on beats 2 and 4. The right hand starts
at 12 o’clock of its circle while the left hand starts at 6 o’clock.
When the left hand reaches 12 o’clock, that would be beat 2. In this exercise each circle is 2 quarter notes long. Watch out, it’s slow!
Once you are comfortable playing steady
and accurate quarter notes on all these exercises you can start moving
up to other rhythmic figures like quarter note triplets, eighth notes,
eighth note triplets, sixteenth notes, etc., always keeping the
metronome in quarters. This way you will build speed while focusing on
sound.
Your next step would be to use your imagination, creating rhythms by combining these exercises and mixing note values.
[Edit: If you are interested in more about brushes, check out this post about long and short strokes]
Here is an inspiring video:
