Play Single Stroke Roll Drum Rudiment

In this free drum lesson, Lionel Duperron teaches you how to practice the single stroke roll and how to apply it to the drum set through a couple of drum beats and drum fills. The single stroke roll is the drum rudiment everyone should learn how to play first. If you’ve been playing drums for some time now but have not began learning the 40 drum rudiments, chances are you’ve already applied the single stroke roll to your drum beats and drum fills without knowing about it.

This drum rudiment consists of alternating strokes played between the hands – R (right) L (left) R L R L…or L R L R L R…in case you’re left hand dominant. No matter the hand you start playing it with, it’s important you learn how to execute the single stroke roll leading with both hands.

Don’t rush the process of learning how to play any of the 40 drum rudiments, just so you can get to the drum beats and drum fills. Taking your time with each step of the learning process will actually make you a better drummer. Focus on quality and not on quantity.

As you practice any of the 40 drum rudiments, sit in front of a mirror so you can check your posture, stick heights and even the way each hand plays a stroke of a given rudiment. This is like having a drum teacher watching you play, evaluating your performance and making corrections. When in front of a mirror you’re your own drum teacher. Be demanding with yourself as a teacher would. Try making things sound and look as perfect as possible. Remember to practice with a metronome, have a lot of patience and just keep playing and having fun. With time you’ll become the drummer you aspire to be. You just have to keep at it.

Once you can play the single stroke roll comfortably on a single surface (practice pad, snare drum) you can move on to learn how to apply it to the drum set. On exercise #1, start by playing a 16th note single stroke roll on the hi-hat. Once you have that down, take the leading hand off of the hi-hat to hit the snare drum on counts 2 and 4. Add the bass drum on counts 1 and 3 and you’re set.

On exercise #2, the bass drum pattern is the same as the one on the previous drum beat. However, the 16th note single stroke roll is a lot more broken up between the hi-hat and the snare drum. Keep the weaker hand close to the snare drumhead so you can play very soft ghost notes on the “e’s” and “ahs” of each count. The leading hand is on the hi-hat playing 8th notes on the “ands” and on counts 1 and 3. On counts 2 and 4 move that hand to hit accented strokes on the snare drum.

Exercise #3 is the first drum fill on this 40 drum rudiments free video lesson. The idea for this drum fill is to keep a single stroke roll going around the drums. Start on the snare and move down your toms, playing four strokes per drum.

The last drum fill on this 40 drum rudiments free drum lesson is a variation on the previous one. Instead of starting the drum fill on count 1 of the second bar start it on count 3 – this is known as a half-bar drum fill. Hit the snare drum first and move down your toms, playing two strokes per drum.

Once you’re able to play the single stroke roll and the exercises herein accurately, you can move on to further expand your knowledge of the 40 drum rudiments. If you want to keep studying single stroke based drum rudiments, we encourage you to move on to learn how to play the single stroke four. In case you want to learn a new type of basic rudimental stroke, then the double stroke roll is the best next thing for you to learn.

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Easy Way Read Drum Tabs

Drum tabs are a simple method of writing down music played on drums. They are a good way for people who don't know how to read standard notation to get instructions on how to play a particular song.

Tabs will give you a solid overview of the piece you want to play. They will tell you when and how to hit the drums.

However, there are things that tabs will not tell you. Bear in mind that tabs are not a substitute for standard notation.

Tabs don't use symbols like you find in standard sheet music, they use ordinary ASCII characters and numbers. They are commonly created by musicians for musicians and are usually freely available on the internet.

Drum Tabs For Beginners

Reading tabs can be confusing for beginners, but it's really not that difficult once you learn what all the symbols mean. The best way to learn is by example, so let's begin. Here is an example of a basic drum beat:


Now we'll try to decipher this. This simple tablature is using 16th notes, that is what the small dashes represent. It is telling you to play a hi-hat every half beat, base drum on 1st & 3rd beat and snare drum on the 2nd & 4th beat. As you can see, each line represents a different drum. The top line is the count. Counting notation is placed either above or below.

At the beginning of each line you can see abbreviations for the different parts of the drum kit. This tells you which part of the drums to play with. In our example HH stands for hi-hat, SD is the snare drum, and BD is the bass drum. Little circles and x's tell you when to hit a particular drum.

Here is a list of basic symbols and abbreviations that are commonly used in drum tabs:

Abbreviations for instruments:

• BD: Bass Drum
• SD: Snare Drum
• HH: Hi-hat
• LT: Low Tom
• HT: High Tom
• FT: Floor Tom
• RC = Ride Cymbal
• CC = Crash Cymbal
• SC = Splash Cymbal

Symbols denoting how to hit the drums:

• o: Strike
• O: Accent
• g: Ghost note
• f: Flam
• d: Drag

Symbols denoting how to hit the cymbals and hi-hats:

• x: Strike (Cymbal or Hi-hat)
• X: Hit Hard Cymbal or Loose Hi-hat
• o: Hit Open Hi-hat
• #: Choke (Grab Cymbal With Hand After Striking It)

This more or less covers the basics, or at least basics of basics. Remember to start with easy pieces and work your way up.

Also remember that drum tabs can not replace standard notation. They have disadvantages, the main being insufficient rhythmic info, so if you're really serious about drumming, you should learn how to read sheet music as well.

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One Handed Drum Roll Tehnique

Performing a fast one handed boom cycle is not actual difficult with the appropriate address and practice. There are two techniques frequently referred to as "one handed roll," and should not be confused. The aboriginal uses the drum’s rim to lift the stick up so that the tip hits the drum-head both on the hand’s up beat and bottomward swing. This address has bound use, and I won’t busy on it because this blazon of one-handed boom cycle is not what this folio is about. The added blazon of cycle uses the fingers’ adeptness to move bound abundant to accredit you to comedy a cycle with one hand. And this is what we will be acquirements here.

Before you apprehend advanced amuse be abiding you are accustomed with the agreeable of these two lessons:

Holding Drumsticks Application the Akin Anchor and How to Comedy Drums Application the Akin Anchor for Volume, Speed, and Accuracy

The abstruse to the one handed boom cycle is to use your middle, ring, and pinkie fingers to actuate the boom stick in accelerated alternating motions. You can commonly move those fingers abundant faster than your wrist or arm, and use beneath accomplishment to do so.

To assassinate the boom roll, you are activity to hit the boom with one duke only, application the akin grip. After the stick bounces of the boom for the aboriginal time, use the three fingers to advance the stick into added fast bounces. The fingers are activity to be assisted by slight movements of the wrist, but don’t use your wrist’s ability or you won’t be able to animation the stick as fast.

The account aloft shows a ancillary appearance of how the stick is held. Notice how it’s accessible now to advance the stick bottomward into the convenance pad with my fingers only. The pinkie is a little abaft the stick and added fingers actuality so it’s not visible, but don’t worry, it’s still there. Sometimes it’s added adequate not to use that finger.

You can alpha practicing these boom rolls by ambience your metronome to 80 beats per minute and 4 beats per measure. Assassinate an 8 animation cycle (eight sixteenth notes) on the aboriginal bisected of the admeasurement (starting on the 1st and catastrophe appropriate afore the 3rd metronome click), and blow for the added bisected of the measure. Repeat abounding times of course, and convenance with one duke at a time. And as always, if it feels too difficult, apathetic down, and if it feels too easy, acceleration up. Also convenance with best (more strokes) rolls.

It is actual important to adept this blazon of motion aboriginal in your career as a boom apprentice because it has abounding uses that don’t abatement beneath what’s advised a boom roll, but the motion is the same. For example, you can use it to comedy fast on the hi-hat or cymbals. Once you apprentice this, you’ll acquisition that you’re application it added and added in your accustomed drumming.

The Real Abstruse Abaft Fast One Handed Drum Rolls

The ambush to accepting acceptable at this is in the timing of your motion. Aback assuming this motion, two things are happening, the fingers are moving, and the stick is moving. And these two motions charge to be coordinated. You charge to alpha blame on the stick with your fingers (closing your hand) aback the tip has aerial abundantly off the boom the drum. If at any point in the roll, you alpha blame the stick aback the tip is still actual low, there won’t be abundant ambit to advance the stick through, and the cycle will die. So you accept to delay for the tip to lift up, anniversary time afore blame with your fingers. Aback the tip is up, you’ll feel the aback of the stick acute adjoin your fingers.

In agreement of practice, this agency that it’s bigger if you convenance boring to get the timing right, and alone again go faster. You’ll acquisition that activity fast is abundant easier if the timing is perfected.

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Fast Stick Drumming Techniques

Good boot techniques will achieve you a fast and able bagman like annihilation else. You can convenance for canicule on end with amiss address and still not be able to do what one hour of convenance with able techniques will let you achieve in agreement of acceleration and efficiency. (By ability I beggarly application the atomic bulk of beef activity as possible.)

This assignment depends on boot techniques discussed in the antecedent boom lesson. Therefore, you ability appetite to analysis it aboriginal if you haven’t done so already.

The key to fast stick address is the bounce. Once you hit the drum, the stick will artlessly animation off the head. Let it do so. Once the stick is up, advance it aback down, but never cull up. Let the animation accompany the stick aback up and do bisected the assignment for you. To advance bottomward on the stick, you’ll accept to cull your arm up first, but you won’t accept to force the stick up with you, it will do so on its own.

If you’re captivation the stick correctly, it will axis accurately about your basis feel as it bounces up, and will additionally be accessible to advance down. Don’t authority the stick too firmly, or it will not axis up. Ideally, you should authority it aloof deeply abundant to anticipate it from aerial out of your hand.

You can’t cull your arm up aerial back arena fast because continued motions booty time. So aloof use baby movements of your forearm, wrist, and fingers. The antecedent assignment mentioned that aggregate is a action of stick height, and consequently, to comedy fast you accept to cede some volume.

Now, go to your drums and convenance this address with a distinct achievement cycle by alternating the easily left, right, left, right… Start practicing slowly, and accompany your acceleration up while advantageous absorption to able technique.

Once you accept this address down, try arena a cycle as fast as you can. You’ll acquisition that you can alone sustain best acceleration for a abbreviate aeon of time. But that’s fine, as those ultra fast rolls are advantageous for assuming boom fills, which don’t aftermost long.

Tuning your drums deeply will achieve the boom active bouncy. So if you’re accepting agitation bouncing the sticks, abbreviating the lugs will achieve things easier.

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