Rolls At Different Tempos

This idea works on developing rolls to be played at different tempos, starting from medium and down to ballad playing.

The aim here is to keep a triplet sub-division with all of the rolls finishing on the third beat of the triplet, the "and" effectively.

The left-column shows you the sub-divisions in 3/4, so you can understand where the beats come.

The 11-stroke roll is the exception. At ballad tempos we are often thinking of sub-dividing each beat into six instead of the three, so the up-beat accent comes much later.

I primarily apply these rolls to brush playing.

Start slow, experiment with doubles and singles, and use a basic foot pattern.

When comfortable apply to time - 2 bars time & 2 bars rolls; 3 bars time & 1 bar rolls.

Then place in different positions in the bar - more on that another time.

The PDF contains one more 16 stroke roll for super slow tempos.

This was originally posted on "Jazz Drumming Blog". This post has been revised from the original.