Ten Stroke Roll
Learn How To Play The Ten Stroke Roll Drum Rudiment!
This next free drum lesson on the 40 drum rudiments website is on the ten stroke roll. Much like the nine stroke roll, the ten stroke roll has four sets of double strokes. The biggest difference between these two drum rudiments happens in the single strokes - the nine stroke roll has one and the ten stroke roll has two. The two single strokes on the ten stroke roll are played at half the speed of the doubles, much like we saw on the six stroke roll.
As you may be realizing by now, learning how to play the single stroke roll and the double stroke roll drum rudiments before trying this one out is imperative. The six stroke roll and nine stroke roll drum rudiments should also be learned before this one. They can work as great preliminary exercises for the ten stroke roll, since both have everything you need to know to be able to play it accurately. Knowing how to play these four drum rudiments before tackling the ten stroke roll will make it easier on you to master it.
In the video, Lionel Duperron plays the ten stroke roll on the practice pad with 32nd note doubles, while on the drum set he plays them as 16th notes. You can work with whichever note values you want. The important thing is to keep the relation between the doubles and the singles the same one – the singles are played at half the speed of the doubles.
This is another one of the 40 drum rudiments that you can naturally alternate, but once it gets faster it can be a very challenging thing to accomplish. Once you know how to play the ten stroke roll accurately on a single surface, you can begin learning how to apply the ten stroke roll to drum fills and drum beats, with the following exercises.
Exercise #1 is a half-time tom-tom drum beat. For practicing this beat we advise you to start simple at first. As you keep a steady four-on-the-floor bass drum pattern, play the first 8th note of each double on its respective drum – an 8th note single stroke tom pattern. Play the snare drum on count 3 and the open hi-hat on the “and” of count 3. This is the basis for this pattern. After you have this pattern down, play 16th note double strokes on the toms instead of the 8th note singles.
Exercise #2 is another half-time drum beat. The first eight strokes are played on the hi-hat. The single strokes are played on the snare drum and on the hi-tom on count 3. After you’re comfortable playing the hand pattern add the bass drum pattern on all quarter notes.
In this next exercise, the stock 8th note rock beat ends on count 1 of the next bar, instead of on the “and” of count 4 like it usually does. So, the ten stroke roll drum fill is played starting on count 2.
You’ll notice that during this drum fill Lionel keeps pounding the bass drum on all quarter notes. This is a very simple way of adding the bass drum to your drum fills. You can take all the drum fills on the 40 drum rudiments website and add this bass drum pattern to spice them up a little bit. This is a great way of working on your foot independence as well.
Exercise #4 has the ten stroke roll starting on count 1. The left hand plays doubles and a single on the snare drum, while the right hand moves its strokes around the toms. Lionel plays a unison figure between the hi-tom and floor tom on count 4 to finish this drum fill. After you’ve done mastering this pattern, try playing it after your favorite drum beats. You can do this for any other drum fill you learn on the 40 drum rudiments website. The stock 8th note rock drum beat is just a simple pattern to get you started on learning how to play a drum fill in context.
After going through this lesson you can move on to learn how to play the eleven stroke roll and the thirteen stroke roll drum rudiments, and how to apply then to the drum set through a couple of creative drum beats and drum fills. You can also keep challenging yourself by shifting the placement of the two single strokes inside of the ten stroke roll.