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My problem is with single stroke rolls. When I start to try and play faster my hands want to go in unison almost going into flams.

I have been playing slow single strokes with metronomes keeping the space between my strokes even. Are there any exercises exercise that would help me speed up without going in unison?

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  • When you start getting this, it's possible that you reached your speed limit with one (or both) hands, so working on the stick-control and speed with single hands could help too being more comfortable with single stroke rolls.
    – ymoreau
    Nov 5 at 13:32
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slow single strokes with metronomes keeping the space between my strokes even

You are already doing the right exercise...

Another exercise is simply doing the same thing without a metronome. You start at a speed that is comfortable and you gradually build speed while maintaining even strokes. As soon as your strokes become uneven, start over again from your comfortable speed.

Do both of the above exercises with double and triple strokes on each hand, one after the other.

Practicing other rudiments - rolls, paradiddles - will help you in gaining speed along with more even strokes as well, just less directly.

Unfortunately, there is no magic exercise that will help you build speed and maintain even strokes, otherwise - if you could possibly invent another one, you will likely go down in music history for all eternity. Until then, you have to practice and practice and practice - until you hate rudiments and want to punch the guy who invented them in his stupid face...

For free tips and tricks, the best place to look is generally on youtube. This is the first video that popped up for me when I searched "even strokes drums":

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  • Revisiting this after scrolling through "unanswered questions" (i.e. no upvoted answers); I thought of putting together an answer a while back but never bothered, this does a great job! One additional thing I'd emphasise is focussing one's awareness on the physical sensations of the stroke with the aim of making it as relaxed and natural as possible – and if you reach a speed where that becomes lost, to slow back down again. Patience and repetition is absolutely the key!
    – Judy N.
    Dec 4 '20 at 23:10
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My first teacher me a nice basic exercise to work on accuracy with left hand.

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Played with a metronome, you hear pretty good if your last hit precedes smoothly the 4th silent time or not. Especially at low tempos.

You can also work this and other rudiments starting with your left hand instead of the right hand (or vice versa if you play left-handed). That will help to reduce the difference between your two hands regarding the timing.

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