ANALYSIS OF THE BUZZ STROKE Preliminary Data Analysis of A Snare Drumming Experiment

Abstract

The focus of this paper is to present an analysis for snare drumming technique via motion capture. This method of analysis includes motion capture data, reconstructed key frames from the data, and the expression of concepts analogous with phenomena found in snare drumming through mathematical comparison. This paper merely examines one portion of the entire experiment in an attempt to preview the full capabilities of this type of analysis in snare drum pedagogy and practice. Introduction:

Full text

ANALYSIS OF THE BUZZ STROKE
Preliminary Data Analysis of A Snare Drumming Experiment

Abstract:
The focus of this paper is to present an analysis for snare drumming technique via motion
capture. This method of analysis includes motion capture data, reconstructed key frames from the
data, and the expression of concepts analogous with phenomena found in snare drumming
through mathematical comparison. This paper merely examines one portion of the entire
experiment in an attempt to preview the full capabilities of this type of analysis in snare drum
pedagogy and practice.

Introduction:
This experiment is to improve upon the current educational material found in the drumming
market through analyzing technique for the purpose of creating a self-instruction manual. This
approach combines the historical production of snare drum manuals with the technology of
motion capture and acoustic analysis in order to meld the new and the old. To understand the
historical progression of these systems, several elements must be taken into account: the use of
rudiments in pedagogy, the history of rudiments, how rudiments are dissected in pedagogy, and
the how rudiments and technique are taught currently.
For snare drumming, the traditional system of a book with visual and musical examples is still
widely used. However, the most recent pedagogical tool for teaching the Moeller technique
(military technique) has been through a DVD which incorporated a computer based model of
drumming along with a video of the technique (Mayer 2007). The purpose of this paper is to
present an adjustment to the tradition of snare drum pedagogy through motion capture data,
artistic representation of that data, slow-motion and real time videos, and mathematical concepts
through acoustic and kinematic analysis. The experiment is performed by one professional snare
drummer over the course of one year (three experiments). This allows for a range of
improvements over time and a range of motion for rest position, basic strokes, and selected
rudiments in the Moeller style of rudimental snare drumming.

Literary Review
The purpose of this literature review is to understand the current trends in motion capture
technology as it applies to snare drumming technique and if any system of analysis captures the
specifics of a technique like the Moeller Technique. This review also includes articles on current
motion capture trends that pertain to the arts in general, mainly dancing. Also, there is a portion
devoted to what technology is used for these experiments. The review begins with the earliest
forms of motion capture drumming and then progresses to the most current application of motion
capture in drumming and dancing.
The first example of motion capture study was performed in the late 19th century by Eadweard
Muybridge (Lanska, 2016) (Horvath, 2012). Muybridge and Francis Dercum produced the first
ever gait study which analyzed the gait of both humans and animals utilizing sequentially
triggered cameras and tracings based on the footage collected (Lanska, 2016). Harry Bower
produced a document that illustrated techniques pertaining to percussion which utilized the photo
as well (Bower, 1912). There were no “moving pictures” as there was with Muybrdige, but
Bower’s guide to drumming detailed grip technique, set up of the drum, and exercises in order to
“keep [the body] in the proper position.” (Bower, 1912). While Bower was among the first
drummers to publish a work utilizing the technology of the day, Sanford Moeller began to work
with this technology as well. Moeller produced a “self-instruction” manual on the snare
drumming technique used by snare drum veterans of the Civil War (Moeller, 1925). Moeller used
a camera to capture the Civil War technique by performing the strokes in reverse in order to show
the stroke at a reduced speed (Moeller, 1925). As the Great Depression rolled around, the United
States Marine Corps produced a reference Manual for drummers and trumpeters (USMC, 1935).

This Marine Corps Manual provided images (both photography and illustrated images) for the
drummer and trumpeter to reference for field duty (USMC, 1935). Photography began to be
commonplace in self-instruction manuals in snare drumming technique, allowing for drummers
to sell their technique to a wide audience outside of their immediate surroundings. Approaching
the 21st century, snare drumming technique had not moved from photography as its most useful
source of displaying technique (Logozzo, 1992). The specificity of technique in regards to human
anatomy began to progress rapidly at the turn of the century (Strain, 2002). Motion capture
technology began to be more widely used at the turn of the century in the areas of both dance and
snare drumming (Dahl, 2004) (Meador, 2004) (Hachimura, 2004).
Even though both fields of study use a form of motion capture, they both utilize various art along
side motion capture. In the field of dance and motion capture, novel methods of motion capture
were used in dance training in evaluating dancers in an interactive mixed-reality environment
(Hachimura, 2004). This availability of software allowed for dance productions to utilize a
virtual environment so dancers can interact with a 3D model of a dancer on stage (Meador,
2004). As technology progressed, the interface between dancer and digital instructor improved
which allowed for the analysis of a dancer’s technique in a distance-learning environment (Chan,
2011). In recent studies, there has been development of “home-based” practices in the area of
dance training through the use of the Kinect system (O’Conner, 2011). This practice of
Kinect-based live dance analysis has continued up until recently with advancement being made
on algorithmic applications and effectiveness of the 3D interaction in relation to the dancers
being analyzed (Marquardt, 2012) (Anderson, 2013) (Kim, 2017). Some research in the field of

dance and motion capture has been on exploring the home-based method of virtual teachers in a
dancer’s learning.
In drumming, analysis of the upper body in regards to snare drumming performance began to be
analyzed via motion capture, force plates, and acoustic analysis (Dahl, 2004) (Kawakami, 2008).
In more recent years, a geometric approach to the representation of the human body has been
used via motion capture data (Miura et al, 2011) (Miura et al, 2012) (Miura, 2012). There was
also an incorporation of EMGs, or electromyography, into the framework of motion capture
analysis for the snare drum (Miura, 2012). Some researchers use a simple RGB camera with
markers on the stick to gain access to motion capture data and drumming (Rooyen, 2015)
(Rooyen et al., 2016).
However, the purpose of this paper is not to provide evidence of a home-based vitural reality
system for snare drum, but to provide evidence on mathematical correlations between different
movement events pertaining to drum pedagogy. The example that will be studied in this paper is
the bouncing ball phenomenon with the buzz stroke phenomenon as played with the Moeller
technique. The motion capture system used for this experiment is the Vicon Motis system with
4-synced cameras. There is a sound recording for the experiment trail used in order to compare
the correlation between the sound of a bouncing ball and the sound of a buzz stroke.

Brief History of Snare Drum Pedagogy:
The current model of rudimental snare drumming was developed in Switzerland in the 16th
century (USMC, 1935). The practice of fife and drumming continued through employment of
Swiss troups by the British, and came over to the Colonies by the time of the Revolutionary War
(USMC, 1935). Now, snare drumming can be found in school programs as the basis of learning
modern percussion. The practice of rudimental drumming began to fade out of a military field
and into a military camp practice by the time of the First World War (USMC, 1935). However,
the Civil War marked the last war drummer boys were used in the battlefield (USMC, 1935).
After the military need for drummers and fifers ended, the American Legion developed groups
for drummers and fifers, or trumpeters, to gather and perform the art form of military music
(USMC, 1935). In addition to the privatization of rudimental snare drumming practices, the
popularity of snare drumming increased, and survived, through the World Wars and the
depression ( This lead to the popularization of rudimental snare drumming as a competition
instead of a field practice (Mazur, 2005).
Documentation surrounding rudimental drumming had been limited prior to Sanford Moeller’s
publication in 1925. This book detailed many of the rudiments used by the Civil War drummer
boys as well as the basic components of the rudiments which are called basic strokes (Moeller,
1925). The Moeller book was a catalog of a specific technique as well as a pedagogical tool for
the snare drummer. The Moeller book allowed for drummers to approach this cataloging of Civil
War snare drumming technique from home. In a sense, the Moeller Book operated as one of the
first motion capture (via photography) self-instruction manuals in any field (Moeller, 1925). The
Moeller Book provided frame by frame analysis of basic strokes and rudiments. Prior to Sanford

Moeller, percussionists like Henry Bower provided technical assistance through prose and music
notation (Bower, 1912). However, there were no sequential frames to reference, only still images
with a key to sort through (Bower, 1912). While helpful, the Bower system of pedagogy wasn’t
as detailed as Sanford Moeller’s. This method of expressing snare drumming technique changed
with the invention of the motion camera and resulting video tape and DVD technologies. While
there were many products between 1925 and the current day, Jojo Mayer’s DVD built upon the
Moeller Book’s style of slow-motion and motion capture analysis of drumming via the camera
(Mayer, 2007).

Experiment
The experiment could not be done without the help of Dr. Liza Shapiro, the graduate students
(Amber Heard-Booth, Allison McNamara, Emma Curtis) and undergraduate students (Meagan
Obrien, Samantha Rice).
There were small (14 mm and 19 mm) spherical reflective markers (Mocap Solutions,
Huntington Beach, CA, USA) attached to the experimentee at 9 joint locations on both arms (18
total anatomical markers), 2 strips of reflective tape at either end of both sticks (4 stick markers),
and 2 strips of reflective tape on the snare drum. All anatomical markers were attached directly to
the skin of the subject using small strips of sticky-back Velcro (Velcro®, Manchester, NH, USA)
while reflective tape was used on the drums and sticks. The subjects performed the experiment
while being filmed with five Basler 602f monochrome cameras (Basler Vision Technologies,
Ahrensburg, Germany) at 150 Hz. The 3D coordinates of the reflective markers were generated
using Peak Motus (v. 9.2) software (Vicon Motion Systems, Oxford, UK), and displacement of
shoulder, elbow, wrist, and stick tip were calculated. The equipment used by the snare drummer
was a 10 inch Firecracker snare drum (Pearl) and a pair of Vic Firth 5B Barrel Tip sticks. For the
experiment, the coordinate plane has the orientation of z (vertical), y (front/back), and x
(side/side).
The drummer performed 5 seconds on basic strokes (full, up, down, tap, buzz) and a selection of
the 40 rudiments (Percussive International Society) in the Moeller technical framework. The
following data is of the buzz stroke as it pertains to the right shoulder, elbow, wrist, and stick.

For American Rudimental Snare Drumming, the practice of rudiments is approached as different
combinations of basic strokes. The basic strokes are basic movement ideas that enable a snare
drummer to develop the technique needed for rudiments. The rudiments allow the snare drummer
to apply the technique developed from the basic strokes. This is similar to basketball
fundamentals like the layup and jump-shot which have individual elements that composite the
entire movement.
The Buzz Stroke is the stroke used for all multiple bounce strokes. In other words, the double
stroke (or diddle) is included in the Buzz Stroke. This is the case because the Buzz Stroke shows
the relationship between number of bounces and the rate in which the most relaxed grip (di erent
for each player) produces each bounce. The buzz stroke is considered a basic stroke because the
technique used for a double stoke roll, a three bounce roll, and a buzz stoke utilize the same
motion. For every bounce after the initial stroke, the elbow contains that stroke until the stick
dissipates and the stroke reaches rest position. The elbow contains each stroke. The body is
relaxed enough to allow transfer of weight from the shoulder to the tip of the stick. Here's the
sequencing of the buzz stroke by stroke type:
Rest->Up->Down->Tap->Tap->Tap->Tap->Tap->Rest.
The buzz stroke can be viewed as a fundamental stroke because the double stroke is contained
inside of the buzz stroke movement. From rest to upstroke, the elbow moves in close to the body
while the hands reach the farthest place from the head of the drum.
This is one stroke sequence based on sequencing of movement by stroke type:From upstroke to
down stroke, the elbow moves further away from the body as the hands move toward the drum in

order to strike the head of the drum. from Down to tap, the elbow reaches its furthest point as the
second stroke is performed. Note: this is the sequence for the Double Stroke Roll. The elbow
continues to move closer to the body through each subsequent tap until the body reachers rest
position. This completes one stroke sequence.

Results
The 3D data captured from the right shoulder, elbow, and wrist show how the movement of the
right arm affects the right stick’s movement. For the data, a algebraic translation was performed
using the Peak Motus system with one rotation on the each plane (x,y,z). For figure 1, the
trajectories that show the greatest movement are displayed in one graph (shoulder x, elbow y,
wrist z). In comparison to the elbow and wrist, the shoulder shows a smaller range on motion
(see figure 1). The elbow is the second smallest range of motion while the ulna and radius share a
common trajectory. The displacements of the right arm effect the right stick. In figure 2, the right
stick (z vector) is shown to have a similar trajectory to the wrist. This is the general displacement
of the stick over time.
Figure 1:

Figure 2:
There is a correlation with the movement of the stick tip and the theory of a bouncing ball. If the
peaks of the stick tip were compared to the peak matching hypothesis, then a correlation of
analysis techniques should be present (Feucht, 2017).
Figure 3:
This is a graph of the right
stick tip’s displacement (cm)
over time (fps) in the z vector
(vertical).
The displacement of the Right
Stick Tip corresponds with
the idea of projectile motion

in physics. The idea is representing the Right Stick Tip through Pead-matching 2nd degree
polynomials and comparing that data to a bouncing ball (figure 3 and 5). The standard diviation
for the joint markers are represented in figure 4 which shows that most of the movement recorded
is repetitive in nature. Figure 4
Figure 5
The stick tip reaches its maximum height (t=269fps, displacement=56.9989cm) and discontinues
its trajectory at rest position (t=540 fps, displacement=-7.99958cm). The intermediate points of

contact with the head of the drum show how the grip of the stick influences the bounce of the
stick since the shoulder, elbow, and wrist show minimal displacement after the initial strike of the
head at the first stroke (t=315). This phenomenon can be explained by comparing the standard
deviation of displacement in X,Y, and Z vectors in the right shoulder, elbow, and wrist (figure 4).
The Buzz Stroke performs an Up Stroke, A Down Stroke, followed by numerous tap. Each
successive tap is smaller in amplitude to the previous tap in a manner that resembles a decay
algorithm. The data shows how the motion of the tip of the stick matches the sound of the stroke.
In other words, the height of the tip of the stick (z plane) directly affects the decibel rating of the
resulting stroke which produces sound on the drum since striking velocity is closely related to
height of the stick which influences the force of the stick towards the drum (Dahl 2004). If the
force of the stick strike has a correlation to the height of the stick (and the force of the strike has
a correlation to the decibel rating of the resulting sound of the snare drum) then the displacement
data presented of the buzz stroke should have a direct correlation to the sound produced by the
drum via the strokes. This occurrence of the buzz stroke necessitates that the grip of the hand
must be loose enough to allow for a natural decay of velocity and the resulting decibel rating.

Conclusion:
The Buzz Stroke is the basic stroke in this paper as well as the definitions of the other basic
strokes within the buzz stroke. I want to combine the science of motion capture to the artistic
expression of motion in order to create a self-instruction manual. However, the purpose of this
paper is to show a correlation between the buzz stroke and the bouncing ball theory. For future
research, the hope is to show how these pedagogical analogies correlate with mathematical
concepts surrounding the two seemingly correlated topics. This will allow for a more nuanced
understanding on which concepts correlate with a specific movement paradigm. Self-instruction
is the current trend in snare drum pedagogy, so an improvement on that system is the goal of
future research as well. However, many more questions arise when looking to improve the
current market. Would mathematical data increase a drummer potential to learn and perform?
Would a Muybrigeon approach to illustration benefit the overall consumption of this
mathematical data? How can a motion capture analysis of technique improve pedagogy related to
other instruments?

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