Not strokes — a sound. The stick disappears into a hiss.
The Rudiment
The multiple bounce roll — also called the buzz roll, press roll, or closed roll — trades countable strokes for pure texture. Instead of one clean stroke per hand, the drummer presses each stick into the head and lets it bounce many times, producing a dense cushion of tiny rebounds. Alternating hands overlap their buzzes so the individual sounds blur into a smooth, sustained wash. This is the sound of the concert snare swell and the crisp sizzle behind a marching line — a roll defined by its evenness of tone rather than by any fixed number of notes.
Sticking
The sticking alternates hand to hand — R L R L — but each stroke is a controlled multiple bounce rather than a single hit, so the audible result is many notes per written stroke. There is no fixed count; the quality lives in how uniformly the buzzes overlap. Practice it slowly as a "buzz-buzz" alternation, then tighten until the seam between hands vanishes.
How to Play
The secret is pressure and relaxation together: let the stick fall, then apply just enough thumb-and-finger pressure to coax several even bounces before the other hand takes over. Too much pressure chokes the stick into a dead thud; too little lets it rattle unevenly. Keep the fulcrum loose and let the head do the work. Longer, denser rolls need slightly firmer, longer presses; softer swells want a lighter touch.
In Practice
The multiple bounce roll is the concert and orchestral snare drummer's sustained roll, the marching drummer's crisp buzz, and the drum kit player's press roll for brushed ballads and quiet dynamics. It stands apart from the measured Double Stroke Open Roll and its relative the Triple Stroke Roll, where every stroke is deliberately counted.