So, you think you can Roll ?

[Klemme]

It's very impressive, however an early teacher of mine, only had 1 lesson because my dad couldn't afford more lessons with him. The name was a danish Percussion professor called Boerge Ritz.

He has passed away some years ago, but this memory remains in my heart:

So we sit down and the first thing he ask me is about holdning the sticks.

I was and still am a Matched guy. And therefor ( Because he is a classical percussionist ) i humble mentions that i'm a mathced grip player.

He says, "Don't be ashamed, let me show you". First, this monster demonstrates from 1-8(!) stroke rolls with Traditional, holding both left and right hands in traditional grip. Then he does exactely the same execution with matcthed grip. i was totally blown away, because i was only working on double strokes at that time. and then he gives me some exercises which Rich Beckham also executes, paradiddles with quarter notes accented etc. however his philosophy about eliminating my dilema about matched and traditional because my idols at that time were all trad. guys!(!) except (!)Jeff Porcaro(!) ( Trad guys: Gadd, Weckl, Tony and Alex Riel - Vinnie came later ) - Greatly stands as a milestone for me, and my future developement of techniques.

I took the discussion up with anothet teacher called Jesper Thorup and he said to me, that boerge had student which all had their unique ways of practicing and orchestrate their resulst. So he had to adapt their techniques and that meant, he had to fully develop right hand trad. grip, Matched Grip and all the new the exotic ways of executing complex techniques - And he came up with the conclussion that one n'or the other technique doesn't exclude you from becomming a technique monster, it's about your personal approach to the drumset that determines your grip of the sticks and placements of your rudiments into complexed solo's and 4way coordinations.

Sorry about making an off topic about this extreme classical and march technique thread, but i found it relevant because i got inspired by the guy you refered to, because he was clearly inspired by the Ritz philosophy. That resulted in the absolution of the monopoly by the traditional grip in Janizaries and timpanies at the danish royal music conservatory in copenhagen.


By that way

Anybody else had experiences with Boerge Ritz? ( N40? ). He was a doctor at one of the music schools in Holland alot and conducted conservatory auditions for percusionists all around the world. I'll seek my fathers librabry of exercises at the end of the week and see what i come up with of the 1 - 8 stroke roll exercises he has written down.

<font color="#a62a2a"><font size="1">[ November 09, 2004 06:36 PM: Message edited by: Klemme ]</font></font>

<font color="#a62a2a" size="1">[ November 09, 2004 06:48 PM: Message edited by: Klemme ]</font>

[Kurt R]

+Queen is prob the most popular on snare. Dose he still teach at Crown? I wasnt sure if he was still their.

[Greaseleg]

He's still at Crown as of now...you know how quickly those things can change. And, yes he is popular, that's because nobody can match the sound quality that goes with his blinding speed...that's what sets him apart.

[Greaseleg]

And the whole "Blast!" thing certainly helped his popularity...