5-Stroke Roll Practice Guide

The 5-Stroke Roll is probably one of the most foundational double stroke rolls, and certainly the most universal.

Duple-based 5-stroke rolls appear in many French, German, and Swiss marches as the main roll (in much the same way the 7-stroke roll is used in American and British beatings).

Triplet-based 5-stroke rolls are the backbone of Single Drag beatings and Reveille beatings, as well as an embellishing phrase for marches.

We even see tight, 64th note rolls appear in some more challenging beatings as virtuosic movements, like the French Rate Saute de Cinq.

Learn more about French virtuosic rudiments. 

Mastering the 5-stroke roll is a major component of strong drumming for any time period or any impression.

In this Guide, we’ll work on each major type of 5-stroke roll.

To learn more, check out the History of the 5-Stroke Roll.

To learn more about types of rolls, check out Understanding Roll Rhythms.

what is a 5-Stroke Roll?

Double Strokes Rolls are two strokes on each hand, alternating at rapid speeds to create a closed roll.

A 5-Stroke Roll is a short double stroke roll made up of 5 strokes:

Right 5-Stroke Roll – 2 on the Right – 2 on the Left – 1 hard stroke on the Right

Left 5-Stroke Roll – 2 on the Left – 2 on the Right – 1 hard stroke on the Left

Exercise 1: Bounced Stroke 5-stroke roll

This exercise is for beginners at Double Stroke Rolls.

Instead of playing open double strokes, we’ll play buzzed strokes or multiple-bounce strokes to get the idea of a 5-Stroke Roll.

Need to learn how to play a buzzed stroke or multiple-bounce stroke? Check out this Beginners Guide to Double Strokes Rolls.

In this exercise, you’ll play two bounced strokes and a final, hard stroke. Start slow so your bounced strokes are clean and even, then progressively try to increase your speed.

Notice the sticking marked below. Play just the top line until comfortable, then switch to the second line until comfortable.

Once you can play those, practice alternating (a right-hand 5, then left-hand 5, etc.)

Exercise 2: open to closed 5-stroke roll

In this exercise, you’ll try to play with actual double strokes.

To facilitate a clean movement from open (slow) to closed (rolling), you’ll play at one consistent tempo but progressively increase the rhythm until you’re playing a closed 5-Stroke Roll.

To perform this exercise:

• Set a metronome to 60 BPM, with two clicks per beat.
• If your metronome cannot subdivide, set your metronome to 2x the tempo (120bpm).
  • Increase by 5bpm (10bpm) increments until 90bpm (180bpm).

Technique:

• Play the first stroke of the doubles a little harder than the second.
• Lift your hands up high after each set of doubles. During the slower movements, try to lift them back to eye level. As you get faster, lower the height. At a full roll, your goal is to still have your sticks coming 6-8 inches off the drum head.
• Be mindful of the timing of the final stroke. In the slower phases, wait the appropriate time between to develop rhythm control.

Note: This exercise is written for alternating 5-stroke rolls. You can play it as just right-hand 5s or just left-hand 5s if you need more practice.

mastering the timing of the 5-Stroke Roll

As I mentioned above, there are a few different “types” of 5-Stroke Rolls. This refers to the underlying rhythm of the roll, which changes based on time signature and use.

The most important types of 5-Stroke Rolls are:

• Duple style 32nd Notes
• Duple style 32nd Notes with Flams
• Triplet style 32nd Notes

To get a better sense of how these work and master their rhythm, try the exercises below.

Exercise 3: Common Time Duple Style, 32nd Notes

How to perform this exercise:

• Set a metronome for 60 beats per minute, with two clicks per beat. If your metronome cannot subdivide, set it for 2x the beat (120bpm).
  • Increase by 5bpm (10bpm) increments until 120bpm (240bpm).
• To start, listen to the metronome. Now count along with it saying: “1 & 2 &” etc.
  • Continue to count aloud to the metronome as you perform the exercise.
• Play the “Test Pattern” twice. This represents the first stroke and final stroke of the rolls.
• Play the “Skeleton” twice. This represents the basic rhythm (counted “1e& 2e&”).
• Play the Skeleton with double strokes to complete 4 rolls.

This exercise will be helpful for the Prussian Fahnen March, as well as many French, German, and Swiss 2/4 Marches. 

Tips:

• During the Skeleton, keep the second stroke even and directly between the two clicks.
• Don’t rush to start the next 5. Listen to the clicks so you’re starting and ending a roll on a click.

Problems & Solutions:

• Getting ahead of the beat. You are probably playing the first stroke too early. Listen closely to the metronome and continue to count out loud: “1 e & a 2”. This will help you find where you should be playing.
• Getting behind the beat. You’re probably waiting too long to play the second stroke of the roll, which is extending the entire roll.
  • Focus on just the Skeleton for a while to get the rhythm correct. If you’re starting and ending the Skeleton on the beat, then switch focus to your doubles.
  • You might be struggling to alternate your double strokes, leading to a pause between each set of doubles. Spend some time on a sustained double stroke roll to clean up your alternating. Alternatively, slow down the metronome and try a slower version of this exercise until you fix the problem, then slowly increase the tempo.

Exercise 4a – 4b: Flammed Duple, 32nd Note 5-Stroke Rolls Opt 1

In the Germanic style, rolls are generally meant to end with a flam. This is a challenging addition because it forces your left hand to play a Double Stroke right into a grace note for the flam (3 strokes in a row).

This exercise will help you to develop that triple movement and then incorporate the Flam into the 5-Stroke Roll.

How to perform exercise 4a:

• Play the test pattern: Hard Left Stroke into Right-Hand Flam.
• Play the practice pattern: Double Stroke with Left Hand into Right-Hand Flam.
• Make this movement fast and aggressive, with the goal to have no space between.

This exercise will be helpful for the Prussian Fahnen March. It will also prep you for longer flammed rolls used in Prussian duty calls. 

Tips:

• In the test pattern, think about leaving your left hand low following the hard stroke. Squeeze the stick slightly after it strikes the drum head to keep it low.
• As the Left Hand plays the Double Stroke, start raising your Right Hand so it’s in place for the Flam.

How to perform exercise 4b:

• Set a metronome for 60 beats per minute, with two clicks per beat. If your metronome cannot subdivide, set it for 2x the beat (120bpm).
  • Increase by 5bpm (10bpm) increments until 120bpm (240bpm).
• Like Exercise 3, play the “Skeleton” twice. This represents the basic rhythm (counted “1e& 2e&”). This time, there’s a Flam on “&”.
• Play the Skeleton with double strokes to complete 4 rolls.

This exercise will be helpful for the Prussian Fahnen March. It will also prep you for longer flammed rolls used in Prussian duty calls. 

Problems & Solutions:

• Getting ahead of the beat. You are probably playing the first right too early. Listen closely to the metronome and continue to count out loud: “1 e & a 2”. This will help you find where you should be playing.
• Getting behind the beat. You’re probably waiting too long to play the flam.
  • Return to Exercise 4a to develop your speed.
  • If that doesn’t help, return to Exercise 3 and work on the timing of the second stroke in the roll. See notes in Ex 3 for improving this.

Exercise 5a – 5b: Flammed Duple, 32nd Note 5-Stroke Rolls Opt 2

Where the Germanic style often ends the rolls with a flam, the French and Swiss style often start a roll with a flam. This is similarly challenging because the Left Hand needs to play the Grace Note in the Flam, pause very briefly, and then play a set of Doubles.

These exercises will help you to develop that triple movement and then incorporate the Flam into the 5-Stroke Roll.

How to perform exercise 5a:

• Soft Left + Hard Left – start with left hand low in a Grace Note position, then quickly come up and play a hard stroke
• Flammed Double + Hard Left – play a Right-Hand Flam, immediately play another stroke on the Right (try for a bounced stroke), and then immediately play a Hard Left.
• Soft Left + Left Double – start with left hand low in a Grace Note position, then quickly come up and play a Left-Hand Double
• Right-Flam + Left Double – play a Right-Hand Flam and then immediately play a Left-Hand Double

Tips:

• Note: These exercises do not need to be played as a sequence; they are simply different ways to approach breaking down the beginning of this Flammed roll.

How to perform exercise 5b:

• Set a metronome for 60 beats per minute, with two clicks per beat. If your metronome cannot subdivide, set it for 2x the beat (120bpm).
  • Increase by 5bpm (10bpm) increments until 120bpm (240bpm).
• Like Exercise 3, play the “Skeleton” twice. This represents the basic rhythm (counted “1e& 2e&”). This time, there’s a Flam on “&”.
• Play the Skeleton with double strokes to complete 4 rolls.

This exercise will be helpful for many French and Swiss marches, in both 2/4 and 6/8. 

Problems & Solutions:

• Getting ahead of the beat. You are probably playing the first flam too early. Listen closely to the metronome and continue to count out loud: “1 e & a 2”. This will help you find where you should be playing.
• Getting behind the beat. You’re probably struggling to transition from the Flam into your Doubles.
  • Return to Exercise 5a to develop your speed.
  • If that doesn’t help, return to Exercise 3 and work on the timing of the second stroke in the roll. See notes in Ex 3 for improving this.

Exercise 6a – 6b: Common Time Triplet Style, 32nd Notes

To play these exercises:

• Set a metronome to 60bpm, subdivided with 8^th notes. If your metronome cannot subdivide, set it to 2x the beat (120bpm).
  • Increase by 5bpm (10bpm) increments until 80bpm (160bpm).
• The accents on notes 1 & 4 will match the clicks from the metronome.

Try the same exercise, but for the longer run of 5-stroke rolls at the end of each line.

This exercise will be helpful for The Three Camps, performed for the American and British Reveille.

These are also the types of rolls used in Single Drag beatings, needed for the American Peas Upon a Trencher (Breakfast Call) and French La Diane (Reveille).

These rolls are also used in the American and British Common Time Marches, such as Ashworth’s Common Time March.  

Technique:

• Keep the accents strong and crisp.
• Relax between the 5s, so you don’t rush into the next one and crush the sound.

Problems & Solutions:

• Getting ahead of the beat. Focus on hitting the 4^th stroke on the “&” click from the metronome to gauge how opened to play the triplets. OR, set the metronome to 60bpm with 3 clicks per beat (set to triplets). If your metronome can’t subdivide, set it to 210bpm. Your right hand lines up with each click, which will help you to open up and not rush the sextuplet.
• Uneven Sextuplets. You are most likely rushing to the 2^nd stroke and then slowing down to catch the beat. Set the metronome to 60bpm with 3 clicks per beat (set to triplets). If your metronome can’t subdivide, set it to 210bpm. Your right hand lines up with each click, which will help you to open up and keep the sextuplet even.
• 5s don’t sound distinct from each other. Most likely your accents on the final stroke of the roll aren’t very strong / clean. Particularly, your left-hand accents are likely to be weak.

Exercise 7a – 7b: Triplet Time Triplet Style, 32nd Notes

To play exercise 7a:

• Set a metronome to 50bpm, subdivided with triplets. If your metronome cannot subdivide, set it to 3x the beat (150bpm).
  • Increase by 5bpm (15bpm) increments until 75bpm (225bpm).
• Play Right Stroke + Right 5-Stroke Roll + Right Stroke
  • NOTE: Your right hand will match every click. The 5-Stroke Roll will start on click 2 and end on click 3.

This exercise will be helpful for the Prussian 3/8-style Reveille, as well as the Dutch Reveille seen in both the American sequence and Dutch military manuals.

Tips:

• Make sure not to rush into or out of the 5. There is a slight pause after the first Right Stroke and there is a pause after the 5 before playing the final Right Stroke.

To play exercise 7b:

• Set a metronome to 50bpm, subdivided with triplets. If your metronome cannot subdivide, set it to 3x the beat (150bpm).
  • Increase by 5bpm (15bpm) increments until 75bpm (225bpm).
• The first part is a triplet 9-Stroke Roll Skeleton (counted: 1 (pause) 2e&a 1).
  • NOTE: Your right hand will match every click. The left strokes must be played evenly between them.
• The second part adds doubles to the 2nd and 3rd strokes to create a 5-stroke roll.
  • This will feel like Exercise 7a, but we’re adding an extra left stroke in the pause before the final right.

This exercise will be helpful for the Prussian 3/8-style Reveille, as well as the Dutch Reveille seen in both the American sequence and Dutch military manuals.

Tips:

• Think of coming right out of the 5 into the Left Stroke.

Exercise 8a – 8b: Duple 64th Note 5-Stroke Rolls, or Raté Sauté de Cinq (5)

The French have a series of virtuosic rudiments called Raté Sauté or Ra Sauté. They begin with a basic “1 e & a 2 e & a” phrase. Then one of those strokes is embellished – generally, the “e” or 2nd stroke.

Learn more on my page French Sauté Rudiments.

The Raté Sauté de 5 switches the “e” for a 5-Stroke Roll. In this position, the 5-Stroke Roll is very fast and tight, known as a 64th Note Roll.

How to perform exercise 8a:

• Set a metronome for 60 beats per minute, with two clicks per beat. If your metronome cannot subdivide, set it for 2x the beat (120bpm).
  • Increase by 5bpm (10bpm) increments until 120bpm (240bpm).
• Play the “Test Pattern” – one on the right and one on the left.
• Play the “Skeleton”.
• Play the Skeleton with double strokes twice through.
  • Notice that the 5-stroke roll is made up of 64th notes.

Tips:

• The 5-Stroke Roll is very tight. It will start between the 1st and 2nd click and end on the 2nd click.
  • Following the 5, you’ll need to open up the final two strokes to make sure you end cleanly on the 3rd click.

How to perform exercise 8b:

• Same cues as above. This time you play a right-handed Raté Sauté de 5 into a left-handed Raté Sauté de 5.

Final Thoughts on the 5-Stroke Roll

The 5-Stroke Roll is such an important rudiment. As you could see throughout, every impression will use 5s in some compacity and many of them use them in multiple ways.

Make sure to master the basics of the 5-stroke roll. Being able to play the faster, alternating 5s is important in the British/American/modern drumming tradition. Understanding the flammed 5s is a unique and challenging component of European drumming.

Download a pdf of the 5-Stroke Roll exercises for practice purposes.

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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
• Double Stroke Roll – Beginner Practice Guide
• The Ra Simple / 4-Stroke Roll / Swiss Ruff 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