What's up ya'll here's a little perspective that I gained through a humble but an enlightening tenure with quad playing. I just wanted to share it with the up and comers cause I wish someone would have done it with me when I started. Now I realize that some of my views are personal preferences I urge you to at least consider them as I found them to be most effective in my experiences. Whether you agree with them or not doesn't matter as long you can see a perspective and learn from it.
The most enticing aspect to quads for me was the visual element. When I first started marching percussion I saw that there was another dimension to drumming and also something that I would be able to carry over to my drumset playing. After a mind-boggling amount of time spent practicing and performing on this great instrument I found some very zen-like qualities of this thing we quad.
The first being in the fundemental stroke of ones playing. The player's stroke should be strong and rebounded like a basketball. This is to ensure a good quality of sound while utilizing the natural energy and motion of the stick. Every beat you play should be a relation to this idea, especially when sound is concerned. Play forte 8th notes at a medium tempo(130bpm)and slowly decresendo them to piano feeling every dynamic in between. This gray area in between is crucial to connecting the dots of forte to piano, so realize this is where the magic lies. When you get to the piano level think if you changed anything in your technique. The lower level 8th's need more control so some back fingers are require but the "look" of your stroke should be exactly the same as the forte version. This is a key point because your taps(all of them!) are variations of idea. Go though some exercises that you know and see if you are approaching your taps and inner beats uniformally. Understand that if your constantly changing your fundemental approach you are making things more complex for yourself as well as wasting energy needed for speed and accuracy.
Every single note that you play is essentially the same. If you know 8 on a hand then you know the basis of it all. There are some differt strokes(pun intended)such as: the upstroke-used for taps to accents; the downstroke- vice versa. While these are different in nature one should strive to maintain the integrity of approach. For the up-stroke fluidity is still neccessary, no tension or jerky motions. For the downstroke(accent to tap)the tap should still have all the fluid and controlled qualities of the home base of forte 8th notes. It's all related!
Next we apply home base(forte 8's) to doubles and triples. The double stroke is simply two forte 8's in a row. Now while this seems easy to concieve in my experience around many great drummers very few have grasped this concept fully. A double stroke is two 8's together, not! I repeat, not an accent with a bounced stroke after it. If you are serious about playing then you don't throw or drop any note in. You are responsible for every single note you play, every beat counts. A good method that I've found for unifying my double strokes is to play very fast,relaxed 8's and casually morph into double beats carefully changing nothing in technique. In the tacet time between doubles the stick will float slightly above the height of the double beat but keep it minimal as it will use more energy. Putting hands together people have a strong tendency to change the approach of technique. To battle this I will often isolate and focus on diddles by playing one hand of a roll. Pay attention to the 8th note pulse, it's a good guide for timing purposes. Get used to the sound and feel of an isolated diddle then look for the sameness quality between the first and second note. They should still be roughly the same height even if the tempo is fast. Using only one hand start slow then speed up to med/fast roll tempo, as you increase tempo a bit more arm is incorporated but the motion of the stick is fundementally the same. After you get the feel alternate then eventually put hands together. All of my students change their technique in this process so be aware and critical, constantly take a hand away to check yourself and then watch to see if it changes when you return the hand. The purpose of keeping the 2nd note of the diddle the same quality as the first intitial note is to ensure a seamless full sound in your rolls. Anyone that has ever heard Star of Indiana '93 has heard the benefit of a good quality roll and over all sound. Another exercise for me is to play med/fast 16th's and alternate between singles to doubles and making them sound exactly the same, and I mean exactly! It's the true test and if you can't do it at all your usual tempos then you got something to work on for a while.
Three's are an example of another type of stroke in our arsenal. It is play with a slight decresendo of every note. While I strive to play each note exactly the same usually at faster tempos it's virtually physically impossible. You still maintain the relationship to homebase and still drop nothing in(play every note with as much conviction as 8's)
When applied to two-height, two hand playing the flow approach is best maintained by first isolating what the indiviual hands are doing. There are a series of exercises that do this for flam rudiments and paradiddle variations such as: triple beats for flam taps etc. You can do it yourself by simply playing a rudiment and placing one hand on a drum and the other on anther surface(preferably quieter). Figure out what the rhythm is and take the filler hand away. Get comfortable enough to play it relaxed then see if you can retain the feeling when you bring in the other hand.
I have found that much of the time players will often work against themselves. There will be habits established that often bring unwanted tension in their playing that hinders progress or real growth. I urge to always be relaxed but still play every note with the same conviction as 8's. Don't confuse control with gripping tighter or pounding, always know that your muscles and mind are more efficient when relaxed and centered. This is the zen of quad and the point that we all strive for in the end. True virtuosity is not by exertion of effort but but relaxed contemplation of music's deepest structures. This means that you practice all the fundementals with the upmost excellence until they are completely automatic and playable in your sleep. We've all heard the phrase" they make it look so easy", well that's you should embody. People should watch you play and be astonished on how you could play something so difficult and fast and still be relaxed. This doesn't mean that one should be lazy about their playing. On the contrary it takes an incredible amount of energy to maintain relaxed control of ones motor functions while playing quads. When all the fundementals of your playing are automatic this allows for the spiritual quality of music that we all experience at some time. Some just once and some can do almost everytime they play. Having been addicted to this feeling for years I strongly encourage others to search for it because it's well worth the effort.
peace
crow

i feel so ...in touch with the ZEN now....seriously! Im glad you took the time to write that, i feel as if i actually understand more about quads/tenors (or whatever) than "ooh....look at the drums...." i planto incorporate that into my practicing now. (and understand why)

One Question: Crow as in Crow Knight?

Cool stuff

Yeah,crow knight. Why do you ask? And for anyone who reads this let me know if any part of the rant is vague or unclear. Thanks
peace

Post deleted by kevin_nhs

I'm going to print that out and read it to the drumline I'm teaching this fall, that is exactly what I've always wanted to say to them but couldn't find the words. Thanks and great job on writing it.

Very good!

Sometimes the basic things need to be re-said, and re-said, ... (ad nausium). It all comes down to the 'stroke'.

Thanks Chronic Quad

Thank you. I tried the tips and I am a much better tenor player. I used to be 5th in my school, now I am 2nd.
Thank you.

Very informative and extremely useful post. =)

One word....Sweeeeet. Oh...And thanks for taking the time. That's really helpful.