How To Perform A Single Stroke Roll
The Single Stroke Roll is the foundation, and the starting point for working on rudiments. This pattern is not complex in any way, but there are a couple tips that will make your success easier to achieve. My words of caution are this: Even though the rudiment is easy, don’t dismiss it by telling yourself that you know how to do it, and its too simple for you. I have been drumming for the last 8 years and I still take a good part of my practice time working on the single stroke roll. You are always able to tighten it up, add accents, and speed it up. You will never be finished developing this rudiment, there is always work to be done!
Advantages Of Learning This Rudiment
The whole point of learning the single stroke roll is to give you a very “elementary” foundation for the other rudiments. Once you get this roll you will get a basic concept of keeping time and it gives you something to practice while working on Developing Your Hand Techniques.
When learning this rudiment you can used either the traditional grip, or the matched grip. The main detail that you want to focus on is keeping your strokes in time, and with equal intensity and volume. You also want to make sure that you’re not wasting any time, its a good time to make sure you have proper hand technique, before you get started practicing.
The Single Stroke Roll
The Single Stroke Roll is quite easy. You basically just alternate your strokes: Right, Left, Right, Left. Another very importing thing to focus on when developing the Single Stroke Roll is accuracy. I recommend you take a quarter or small coin and place it on the middle of your practice pad and trace it with a felt pen. Every stroke you should aim to make contact inside this circle. This will give you the most consistent sound possible.
I’m assuming that you know how to count in time so I’m not going to cover that in this article. Set your metronome to 60 BPM and go through this exercise counting out loud… If you can stat with eighth notes and count 1 &, 2 &, 3 & 4 &,…
Once you get that up to speed you can try doing sixteenth notes 1 e & a, 2 e & a, 3 e & a, 4 e & a…
Its a good idea to start developing your single stroke roll on a practice pad. Practicing on a practice pad takes away all of the distractions that your drum kit has. It also makes it quieter for you so you can hear your mistakes and develop your technique faster.
Additional Exercise Tips
Now, as you are practicing the Single Stroke Roll, it is important to also watch the height of each stick after your bounce. The height itself is not critical however you want to make that your hands are coming up to an equal height. As you practice change the heights, start really low always keeping both strokes even, then slowly raise each it up until each hand is coming up around 15 inches off of the drum, then bring it back down low, somewhere around 3-5 inches off the practice pad. When you are doing this, make sure that you stay in time. Always use a metronome when developing techniques like this.
Tips
Since the purpose of the Single Stroke Roll is to help build stamina and strength, it is a good idea to pick up some heavier sticks (2A, or 2B) and then set up a metronome start at something slow like 60 BPM and play for five minutes straight on your practice pad. This will help you up stamina. Do not increase the tempo until you can play it flawless for five minutes straight. Let those muscles burn! This is a great Exercise for when you are watching your favorite TV show… Keep practicing Left, Right, Left, Right.
Once you are comfortable with your progress with the single stroke roll, the next rudiment that you should learn is the double stroke roll.
Explore posts in the same categories: Drum Rudiments, Beginner Drumming