Supplement 23B: Roll Development | Part 2 of 3
As a review, control of the buzz comes mainly from the fulcrum or grip — relax the fingers underneath on striking the drum so the stick can move freely. Base the roll’s speed on the 8th-note, 8th-note triplet, 16th-note, 16th-note triplet or 32nd-note count as appropriate, and be ready to use artificial groupings (quintuplets, septuplets) when needed — at times a roll may combine a triplet-based tempo with 16th-note notation, or vice versa, so watch for this in your practicing (Supplement 23B, which applies various roll lengths within phrases). Use different tempos for open and closed rolls as each exercise calls for, and for the long roll (exercise #7), feel free to play the best-sounding roll rather than a strictly measured one. A metronome helps with timing accuracy. Use this tempo guideline for measured rolls:
- 50–70 bpm → 32nd-note rolls
- 72–90 bpm → 16th-note triplet rolls
- 92–140 bpm → 16th-note rolls
- 142–200 bpm → 8th-note triplet rolls
- 202 bpm and up → 8th-note rolls
