-SpY-EyEs- classic tutorial on the infamous Click Roll

Audio

Explanation

1. The position of the tongue

   

   There are different ways of placing your tongue for this technique but I am only going to go over the way I do them. Why? Well, I have tried different positions myself and I got the best results placing the tongue like in the pictures. I am not stopping you from trying different positions though, experimenting yourself is always good. Anyway, for the click roll I fold my tongue inwards with the tip of the tongue touching the gum of the mouth. You should not fold it inwards too much or else you'll get a sort of 'duck-ish' sound effect. It should sort of be a flat 'L' shape. You can see this in Pic 1. As for where to place the tip of the tongue, it should be around the middle of the gum of your mouth. Use Pic 2 as a reference. I found out this position gave me the best effect to the click roll itself. Some people use the side of the tongue but the tip gave me the loudest effect and made the clicks sound clear.

2. Breathing

   

   The way you breath in is very important when doing a click roll. When first trying out the click roll, people tend to breath in directly through the lungs which is a mistake. It will not get you the click roll but a different technique which sounds like a bass-like tongue roll. However, it is possible to breath in through the lungs when doing a click roll. I think you'll find that one out on your own when you've got this technique down, I'm not going to go over it because it is harder to learn plus it is hard to explain. ^_^ Anyway, the way you should breath when doing clickrolls is very similar to humming and beatboxing at the same time. You should be 'breathing' in the mouth only, which may sound wierd to some of you. If I'd have to explain it in simple words, it is air that comes into your mouth by making movements with your tongue. You can try it out by shaping your lips as you were about to whistle and moving your jaw up and down a little bit. While doing that you could also move your tongue a little bit inwards and back to its normal position again (tongue inwards when letting the jaw fall). If you want to make sure you know how it works you could also hold your breath while trying this out. When trying this out, you should feel a small amount of air going in and out of your mouth. The advantage of this all is that you can breath in and out while doing a click roll, or even better, hum beneath it. Which enables you to do a lot of sounds in just one beat (kicks, snares, rimshots, click rolls, humming, hi hats and more). This was really a small explanation on how humming and beatboxing work, but you will need it for making click rolls too. On to the next section.

3. Getting the click roll down

   This will be the hardest part and because of that I have written down 2 ways of learning the click roll. The first one is the original which I came up with.

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     As you can see I have drawn a few pictures to help you out. I'm going to go over these first. Take a look at Pic 3. You can see that the sides of the tongue are expanded a little bit to the inside of the teeth. It is not necessary, but it'll be easier to learn if you form your tongue as in the pictures. By exapnding your tongue to the sides, you are closing off the airway and making sure the airflow will go into the right direction. You can also try to put your cheeks against the outside of your teeth. Now if you take a look at Pic 4, you can see that the airflow can't go down because it is sealed off by your tongue. The only way it can go is towards the tip of the tongue. You won't have to put a lot of pressure on the tip of the tongue to get the sound of a click roll. So basically the air is creating a vibration of the tip of the tongue, making it go up and down really fast which results in multiple clicks. If you put more pressure on the tip, it'll even touch the tongue. Ok now that I've gone over the pictures, you can try out some clickrolls. I think its best to first try some single clicks and then try multiple ones. It might be hard in the beginning though but that is where practice comes in. After you've got it down a little bit, try to do more clicks. A regular click roll can produce about 6 - 12 clicks. Don't forget that it might take a while before you get all of this down, it can take weeks, even months. Make sure you practice everyday!

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     You still don't seem to get it? Here is a different approach of learning a click roll. Try making a few tongue claps behind each other(flicking the tongue down to the bottom of your mouth). In the tongue clap starting position the tip of the tongue starts out in the small gap thats in the gum of your mouth, not directly behind the front teeth but its almost the same position as where you put the tip of the tongue for making a click roll. Only when doing a click roll, the tongue is folded inwards a little bit. The trick is making a transition of tongue claps to tongue clicks with the tongue folded and the tip of the tongue a little bit more inwards. So try making some claps/clicks behind each other starting out with tongue claps and then slowly folding the tongue inwards while still making claps/clicks. Eventually you are making clicks with the tongue in the right position. Then try making a click roll. Listen to the sample below.

4. Help on getting a click roll into a beat

   There isn't really a secret to getting click rolls into a beat but once you got them down, you might have some trouble incorporating them. I wrote out some small samples with audio to help you get started. There really isn't much I can learn you on this one though, it is all practice. Changing from a kick to click roll to snare or other combinations like that can be hard though and might cost you a little volume in the beginning. The kick will sound a bit weaker and the snare will sound a bit different from what you are used to. If you just keep practicing it on and on, you will get your strength and original sound back. The clue to making everything sound as tight as possible is keeping the tongue in the click roll position while making the other sounds or change positions really quickly. Depends on the sounds you want to make. Keep in mind that you don't have to mimic these samples perfectly, just try them out and switch up some kicks and such. Trying different combinations is really good for your sounds and beats inventory. You might want to try and put some single clicks between the beats too, they can come in handy when doing certain beats. Anyway, here are the samples.

   B = Kick // Pff = Snare // C = Single Click // CR = Click Roll // T = Hi Hat

   B - CR - Pff - CR - (Repeat)

   B - CR - C - Pff - CR - (Repeat)

   B - CR - CR - Pff - CR - CR - Pff - CR - (Repeat)

   B - CR - Pff - T - T - B - Pff - CR - (Repeat)

5. Tips and known issues.

   - When trying to do a click roll, you can try applying more pressure on the tip of the tongue. This will give a louder effect to the click roll.

   - If you try the opposite, letting your tongue relax, you can achieve the same click roll style Doug E. Fresh uses.

   - By forming you mouth in different ways, you can get different sounding click rolls, for example if you form your mouth as if you were about to whistle, you will get a bit of a bass effect to it. By forming the mouth as if your smiling, your clicks will sound really crisp and clear.

   - Listening or watching audio/video can help you getting it down faster or give you ideas of your own. Look on the internet for files.

   - By applying a lot of pressure on the tip of the tongue, your jaw can feel really tired or even hurt after some intensive practicing, so don't push yourself too hard. In time your tongue and your jaw will get used to it and get stronger.

   - Some people use their tongue for making a kick (placing it between the lips to get a louder effect or special technique), this can be a little problem for incorporating a click roll into a beat. The only advise i can give is that you might want to consider not using the tongue for the kicks or train yourself to be able to change tongue positions quickly. It will take a lot of practice but its worth it.

   - Be creative, find your own style and don't forget to practice!