DRUM ROLLS, SKELETAL PATTERNS

The beat of a single tap is fundamentally the only note a snare drum can produce. The tap and other strokes’ limitation is that a single snare drum beat’s sound cannot be “held.” To play extended beat values (i.e., to hold the sound), drummers must use the roll. The drum roll, also known as the “drummer’s long tone,” is a deliberately timed series of single strokes, double strokes, or pressed buzz strokes.

Roll Timing: Drum rolls can be played by rapidly alternating single strokes in a timed series, by doubling stroke taps, or by pressing strokes to create multiple bounces. The various techniques of alternating and controlling roll strokes are essential. Still, the necessary condition common to all roll methods is timing. Timing in music means that beats or rhythmic patterns synchronize to a musical composition’s pulse and tempo.

Roll Naming: The traditional way of naming drum rolls is to identify them by the number of “strokes” that it takes to play a roll in a given count of time. This naming convention was established hundreds of years ago by drummers who used rope-tensioned drums. Double stroke rolls were played as two deliberate down-up motions on the one hand and then the other. The number of roll beats sounded was equal to the number of individual hand motions, or “strokes” required to play the roll.

The tension of a calfskin drum head is subject to the ever-changing conditions of temperature and humidity. Bouncing the stick was not a consistently reliable roll technique before the introduction of mylar plastic heads. Research of American and British drum method books published between 1780 to 1886 reveals no evidence that the concept of stick bounce or “rebound” was introduced to explain the roll technique. (See Roll History)

To deal with slack calfskin head tension due to humidity, drummers would place drums next to campfires or hot stoves. By the 1920s, when electricity became more widely available in the United States, drummers could use electric heaters installed inside drum shells to dry the heads.

Modern drummers learn to play rolls using rebound double strokes. A rebound double produces two beats from one down-and-up hand motion. A downward hand motion plays the first beat, and the second beat generates from the rebound energy of the first. The number of strokes still dictates the names of bounced rolls, but the thing counted is the number of beats sounded and not the number of hand motions used.

Skeletal Pattern: The number of individual down-and-up hand motions is the underlying framework of a roll played using rebound double strokes. The framework of hand motion is also called the “skeletal pattern” of the roll.1 Studying the skeletal patterns of rolls is useful for understanding roll counts and timing.

“Nowadays, many traditional style drummers fit rope drums with plastic rather than calfskin heads. This has made it possible for rebound techniques to be routinely used on rope drums. Among the most hard-core of traditional style players, calfskin is still the preferred way to fit a rope drum, and bouncing the sticks to play rolls is considered cheating.” James Clark.2

NOTES

 1. Coffin, James. The Performing Percussionist (Oskaloosa: C.L. Barnhouse Co., 1972), 24.

 2. Clark, James. Connecticut’s Fife & Drum Tradition (Middletown: Wesleyan University Press, 2011), 120.