Even though rolls seem to be just quick, alternating double strokes, they have underlying rhythm.
If you want to develop your rolls and gain more control over your musical knowledge, you have to understand the underlying “skeletons”, or rhythm, of different kinds of rolls.
In the following article, I’ll talk about the types of roll skeletons that exist.
Additionally, I’ll explain how you can break down rolls into their skeletons to design effective drumming exercises.
The Four Underlying Roll Rhythms
All rolls can be described in musical terms as essentially fast rhythms. They are all one of four rhythms:
- 32nd notes in duple time
- 32nd notes in triple time
- 64th notes in duple time
- 64th notes in triple time
Most rolls in fife and drum music are 32nd notes in triplet time – think of the tight 7-stroke roll or the quick movement of The Three Camps.
Overall, most rolls are in the first two categories and we’ll deal predominately with these two options.
The fourth rhythm, 64th notes in triple time, are fairly rare, but are seen as tight, buzzed 5-stroke rolls in the 6/8s of Scottish pipe music.
What is a Roll Skeleton?
When you play a roll, you are playing two strokes on each hand (double strokes).
If you play a numbered roll – say, a 9-stroke roll – you might count it based on how many hand exchanges you need to perform.
In the 9-stroke roll, for example, you have five hand exchanges:
- 2 strokes on the right, 2 strokes on the left, 2 on the right, 2 on the left, and 1 on the right.
- This totals 9 strokes, with 5 hand exchanges.
To find the skeleton, we focus on these hand exchanges.
But, instead of playing the doubles, play just single strokes.
For the 9-stroke roll, for example, you’d play five single strokes: 1 on the right, 1 on the left, 1 on the right, 1 on the left, and 1 on the right.
This is the core of the skeleton.
To develop increased command of your tempo and rhythm, next you need a grasp of the underlying rhythm for the roll you’re working on.
32nd Notes in Duple Time
These types of rolls can easily be counted “1e&a 2e&a”.
This represents the 16th notes that form the rhythm. By doubling each stroke, you are playing 32nd notes.
Measure 1: skeleton rhythm, with dashes that indicate each note should be doubled.
Measure 2: articulated sticking which shows the rhythm with the double strokes as 32nd notes.
In the first measure, the bars on each note indicate that they should be doubled. Both measures are mathematically the same, just depicted differently.
Every numbered roll can be performed as 32nd Notes in Duple Time.
Here are the skeletons for the major numbered rolls as 32nd Notes in Duple Time.
Note: the lines through the notes mean to double the stroke. Play without the doubles to create the skeleton.
32nd Notes in Triple Time
These types of rolls are triplet based – think of Sextuplets or Ratamacues.
In these Sextuplets, when you double each stroke, you are playing 32nd notes in triple time. (This is true whether you’re playing 2/4 or 6/8).
Measure 1: skeleton rhythm, with dashes that indicate each note should be doubled.
Measure 2: articulated sticking which shows the rhythm with the double strokes as 32nd notes.
In the first measure, the bars on each note indicate that they should be doubled. Both measures are mathematically the same, just depicted differently.
Many numbered rolls are performed commonly as 32nd Notes in Triple Time.
Here are the skeletons for the major numbered rolls as 32nd Notes in Triple Time.
Note: the lines through the notes mean to double the stroke. Play without the doubles to create the skeleton.
32nd Notes in Complex Forms
A few commonly played rolls are in slightly more complex tuplets that we’ll touch on here.
Both 10-stroke rolls and 11-stroke rolls can have a Quintuplet as a skeleton. When doubled, these rolls are also 32nd notes.
When performing the English Reveille (The Three Camps) at a slow, quarter note = 60bpm, this is how you’d play the 11s and 10s.
When playing the English Reveille at a quarter note = 120bpm and focusing on a rest between the 5s and 10s/11s, you’d play this form as well. (In this situation, because you’re playing so quickly, you could almost think about playing these as 64th notes).
If you want to know more about the different styles of performing 10s & 11s in The Three Camps, check out my practice guide “Performing the Three Camps, or Points of War“.
How To Use Roll Skeletons As Drumming Exercises
Ultimately, the real reason to understand the skeleton of a roll is to master your control over the rhythm and tempo of a particular piece.
Rolls must start in the correct place in the measure, or else they will begin too early or too late.
If you don’t have good control over the rhythm of the roll, you might play the roll too slowly, causing you to slow down the tempo. (Essentially, your hand exchanges move too slowly.)
Similarly, you might play the roll too quickly, causing you to rush to the end of the beat. (Essentially, your hand exchanges move too quickly.)
By practicing the skeleton, you will teach yourself how to perform the hand exchanges in order to correctly play the notated rhythm and, therefore, keep the tempo under control.
A great exercise is 2×2: two skeletons, followed by two rolls.
This example has two skeletons for triplet 5-stroke rolls (like in Three Camps) followed by two sets of 5-stroke rolls.
The skeletons get the rhythm established so your hand changes are already there by the time you start the rolls.
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Want more roll based exercises? Check out:
Want to improve tempo control? Check out my tips on improving tempo and experiment with using these ideas for your skeleton practice.
