Five Stroke Roll
Learn How To Play The Five Stroke Roll Drum Rudiment!
The next drum roll based rudiment we’ll be taking a look at is the five stroke roll. As you can see on the sheet music below this drum rudiment is comprised of five strokes – two doubles and a single. Unlike some of the other drum rudiments, the five stroke roll naturally alternates between leading hands. If you haven’t already, check the free drum lessons on the single stroke roll and the double stroke roll drum rudiments before taking a stab at the five stroke roll; you’ll be better off in the long run.
The five stroke roll is pretty straight forward. You start by playing an alternating four-note double stroke roll led with your main hand. You follow this with a single stroke as the fifth note. Then, you alternate, and play the exact combination of notes but leading with your weaker hand instead.
As you get to higher speeds, you’ll start bouncing the doubles off of the drumhead or practice pad. For teaching you how to play and practice the five stroke roll accurately, Lionel Duperron shares some practice tips and a couple of drum beats and drum fills to which he applies the five stroke roll.
The first pattern we’ll be taking a look at is a drum beat. The five stroke roll is used twice in this exercise. In the video, Lionel uses the same hand to lead each of the five stroke rolls in the drum beat. You can start the second one leading with your left hand. Doing so will actually make it that much of an easier drum beat to play, since you won’t have to cross your arms to reach the floor tom.
The second drum beat in this free drum lesson is a variation on the previous one. Just like we saw on exercise #1, Lionel keeps leading each five stroke roll with the same hand. But in this case however, he does so because he starts each five stroke roll with a double stroke on the ride cymbal to his right.
Exercises #3 and #4 take you on your first five stroke roll based drum fills. On the first drum fill below the doubles on the first five stroke roll are played between the snare drum and the hi-tom. The single stroke lands on the floor tom on count 2. The doubles on the second five stroke roll are played between the floor tom and the hi-tom. This time the single lands on the snare drum on count 4. Just like on the drum beats above, Lionel chose to lead each five stroke roll with the same hand.
The next drum fill is a cool example of how to add little nuances around the drum rudiments you’re using to come up with your own patterns. Lionel Duperron achieved this by adding an 8th note on counts 2 and 4, instead of playing the five stroke roll as notated. Interesting enough he transformed the five stroke rolls into six stroke rolls. The six stroke roll is another one of the 40 drum rudiments.
After you’re done with this 40 drum rudiments free drum lesson, you can move on to learn how to play the six stroke roll and the seven stroke roll drum rudiments.