Double Stroke Roll Beginner Practice Guide

For all beginner drummers, learning to play a Double Stroke Roll can be an intimidating challenge.

These exercises will help you progress through buzzed rolls to bounced rolls to a proper double stroke roll.

This is opposed to the modern buzzed or bounced rolls. Want to know more about the distinction? Check out my discussion of the historic performance of the Double Stroke Roll.

These Buzzed and Bounced Strokes will help you learn a “messy” roll, enough to get you started learning 5s, 7s, etc. needed to learn the duty calls.

Looking for more of a challenge? Jump to Double Stroke Roll Advanced Practice Guide.

Buzzed Strokes, or Multiple Bounce Strokes

A Buzz Stroke is a type of roll that has a more compressed (buzzed) sound.

Buzzed Rolls are the hallmark of Bagpipe Drummers. They typically have very clean, full Buzzed Rolls, accentuated by their double snare style drums.

Learning to buzz your strokes is a good entry into understanding how to manipulate your sticks into bouncing naturally.

Exercise 1: Right-Hand Buzzes

To perform this exercise:

• Focus on just the Right Hand.
• Strike the drum firmly, but not excessively loud or whipped like an accent.
• As the drum stick hits the drum head, squeeze the drum stick and press the stick into the head.
  • For a modern right-hand grip: think about squeezing the thumb and pointer finger together.
  • For a traditional right-hand grip: think about squeezing the pinky finger into the fleshy part of your palm.

Problems & Solutions

• If the drum stick kind of “dies” on the drum head, you’re squeezing and/or pushing too hard. Ease up a little.
• If the drum stick is bouncing out of control and hitting multiple spots on the drum head, your grip is too loose. Check your hand and finger position (being absolutely sure that you’re not letting go of the stick when hitting the drum), then apply a little more pressure.

Exercise 2: Left-Hand Buzzes

To perform this exercise:

• Focus on just the Left Hand.
• Strike the drum firmly, but not excessively loud or whipped like an accent.
• As the drum stick hits the drum head, squeeze the drum stick and press the stick into the head.
  • For a left-hand grip: think about pressing your thumb down onto your pointer finger. Don’t let your other fingers come off the stick.

Problems & Solutions

• See above for the Right Hand.

Exercise 3: Alternating Buzzes

To perform this exercise:

• Now we’ll alternate from Right to Left, creating a continuous back and forth movement.
• Use the same cues as before.
• Try to alternate smoothly, creating an even cadence.
  • At first, keep this cadence slow. As your buzzes get easier to make consistently, increase your speed, but keep the strokes even.

Buzz Stroke Wrap Up

Once you’re alternating your Buzz Strokes at a good speed, you can try to learn some of the numbered rolls, like 5s, 7s, and 9s.

You’ll play the same rhythm or hand exchanges, but instead of playing as closed Double Strokes, you’ll play as Buzzed Strokes. This will create a “messy” sounding roll, but it will give you the idea of how to play these foundational rolls and let you start learning some major duty calls.

Check out these Drumming Guides to get started on numbered rolls. The first lesson will focus on the basics and tell you where to use Buzzed Rolls instead of Double Strokes.

5-Stroke Roll Guide

7-Stroke Roll Guide

9-Stroke Roll Guide

Bounced Strokes

A Bounced Stroke is similar to a Buzz Stroke, in that we’re going to still press the stick into the drum head to force it to bounce.

The difference is that we only want the stick to bounce once so it only creates 2 hits.

Mastering the Bounced Stroke is the first real step to being able to play a closed Double Stroke Roll.

Exercise 1: Right-Hand Bounced Strokes

To perform this exercise:

• Focus on just the Right Hand.
• Strike the drum like you’re going to play a Buzzed Stroke.
• As the drum stick hits the drum head, squeeze the drum stick and press the stick into the head.
• After one bounce (two strokes), lift the stick away from the drum.
  • You might find releasing the pressure in your grip just a little is helpful to stop the stick at the right time.

Problems & Solutions

• If the drum stick kind of “dies” on the drum head after only one stroke, you’re squeezing and/or pushing too hard. Ease up a little.
• If the drum stick is bouncing out of control and hitting multiple spots on the drum head, your grip is too loose. Check your hand and finger position, then apply a little more pressure.
• If you’re having trouble stopping the stick after one bounce, there may be a few reasons:
  • Are your buzzes very close to the drum head (1-2″ off the head)? Try striking the drum a little harder and not squeezing quite so tight. This should help to open up the buzzes into higher bounces. This will make it easier to hear and see when you’ve made your two strokes.
  • If your buzzes are already a bit higher off the drum head (in the 4-6″ range), you’re doing the right things to get good rebound. After the second stroke, purposefully lift your hand so the stick comes up to chin or nose height. You can also squeeze the stick very slightly when it’s at it’s high point (4-6″) to help deaden the rebound it’s getting.

Exercise 2: Left-Hand Bounced Strokes

To perform this exercise:

• Focus on just the Left Hand.
• Strike the drum like you’re going to play a Buzzed Stroke.
• As the drum stick hits the drum head, squeeze the drum stick and press the stick into the head.
• After one bounce (two strokes), lift the stick away from the drum.
  • You might find releasing the pressure in your grip just a little is helpful to stop the stick at the right time.

Problems & Solutions

• See above for the Right Hand.

Exercise 3: Alternating Bounced Strokes

To perform this exercise:

• Now we’ll alternate from Right to Left, creating a continuous back and forth movement.
• Use the same cues as before.
• Try to alternate smoothly, creating an even cadence.
  • At first, keep this cadence slow and focus on getting just two strokes per hand.
  • As your bounced strokes get easier to make consistently, increase your speed, but keep the strokes even.

Bounced Stroke Wrap Up

Once you’re alternating your Bounced Strokes at a good speed, you can try to learn some of the numbered rolls, like 5s, 7s, and 9s.

You’ll play the same rhythm or hand exchanges, but instead of playing as closed Double Strokes, you’ll play as Bounced Strokes. This will create a “decent enough” roll, but it will give you the idea of how to play these foundational rolls and let you start learning some major duty calls.

Check out these Drumming Guides to get started on numbered rolls. The first lesson will focus on the basics and tell you where to use Buzzed or Bounced Rolls instead of Double Strokes.

5-Stroke Roll Guide

7-Stroke Roll Guide

9-Stroke Roll Guide

If you’ve already started working on numbered rolls, like 5s and 7s, with Buzzed Strokes, now is a good time to go back and review them. Instead of playing the Buzzed Stroke, try playing the more open Bounced Strokes instead.

Double Stroke Roll – Slow to Fast

In these exercises, we’ll work on playing two strokes on each hand over progressively faster rhythms. The tempo will stay the same, but you will start to play your double strokes faster.

Exercise 1

To perform this exercise:

• Set a metronome at 75bpm, with two clicks per beat.
  • If your metronome cannot subdivide, set your metronome to 2x the tempo (150bpm).
• Start with two half notes on each hand, then two quarter notes, then two eighth notes.
  • Each half note strikes on click 1 and rests for clicks 2-4.
  • Each quarter note strikes on click 1 and rests on click 2.
  • Each eighth note matches a click.

Don’t rush to bring your stick back into position.

• When playing half notes: strike on beat 1, use the full beat to raise the stick so it arrives at eye level on beat 2.
• When playing quarter notes: strike on beat 1, use the “&” click to return to height; strike again on beat 2.
• When playing eighth notes: strike on beat 1; the stick returns to position on the “e”; strike on “&”; stick returns to position on the “a”.

Exercise No. 2

To perform this exercise:

• Set a metronome at 75bpm, with two clicks per beat.
  • If your metronome cannot subdivide, set your metronome to 2x the tempo (150bpm).
• Start with two eighth notes on each hand, then move to sixteenth notes. Repeat back to the eighth notes.
  • Each eighth note matches a click.
  • The first stroke of each double in the sixteenth notes matches a click.

Having trouble keeping your 16th notes clean? Set your metronome to click on 16th notes (4 clicks per beat or 4x the tempo).

Exercise No. 3

To perform this exercise:

• Set a metronome at 75bpm, with two clicks per beat.
  • If your metronome cannot subdivide, set your metronome to 2x the tempo (150bpm).
• Start with two sixteenth notes on each hand, then move to 32nd notes. Repeat back to the sixteenth notes.
  • The first stroke of each double in the sixteenth notes matches a click.
  • By the 32nd notes, you’re playing a closed roll. The first stroke of each Right-Hand double matches a click.

Having trouble keeping your 32nd notes clean?

Do your 32nd notes sound uneven (like there’s a pause between the right strokes and left strokes)? Or, are you constantly getting behind or ahead of the beat?

Set your metronome to click on 16th notes (4 clicks per beat or 4x the tempo). The first stroke of the doubles should line up with the 16th notes.

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Hopefully what you’re getting a sense of is the underlying rhythm of the double stroke roll and how your performance chances slightly as you adjust the tempo.

Download a pdf of the Basic Double Stroke Roll exercises for practice purposes.

Once you can play clean 32nd doubles, you are playing an open Double Stroke Roll. Congrats! This is a challenging accomplishment.

Next, try more advanced practice techniques. Check out my Double Stroke Rolls – Advanced Practice Guide.

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Interested in learning more about Double Stroke Rolls and their History? Check out:

• Roll Rudiments and learn about types of rolls, like 4s, 5, 7, etc.
• Historic Performance the Double Stroke Roll
• Understanding Roll Rhythms
• When Did Drummers Start Rolling?
• The Ruffle

Want more practice guides?

• Authentic Right-Hand Grip Practice Guide
• The Flam: Sticking Control Practice Guide
• The Ra Simple / 4-Stroke Roll / Swiss Ruff Practice Guide
• The 5-Stroke Roll Practice Guide
• The 7-Stroke Roll Practice Guide
• The 9-Stroke Roll Practice Guide
• The Double Stroke Roll – Advanced Practice Guide
• The Three Camps Practice Guide
• The Double Drag Practice Guide