Drum roll
This article is about the drum roll, a percussion technique. "Drum Roll" is also the title of the autobiography of James Blades.
A drum roll is a method a percussionist employs to produce a sustained sound on a drum. Rolls are used on other percussion instruments such as the marimba and xylophone to sustain the sound, where it can be likened to tremolo on string instruments.
The snare drum roll
The commonest snare drum roll is the closed daddi-mammi roll. The open daddi-mammi roll is played with double strokes alternating between the left and right hands; the closed roll is produced by applying more pressure and loosening the grip slightly to allow the sticks to bounce more than twice against the drum skin and produce a more continuous sound.
Other than the open daddi-mammi there are many other rolls which are practised as drum rudiments. In the table below, lower-case letters represent grace notes (drags, flams etc) and hyphens represent rests. (Please lilypondify and add to these, someone!)
| Rudiment | Sticking pattern |
|---|---|
| Single-stroke roll | RL RL RL RL |
| Double-stroke roll (daddi-mammi) | RRLL RRLL |
| Single paradiddle | RLRR LRLL |
| Double paradiddle | RLRLRR LRLRLL |
| Ratamacue | rrLRLR-- llRLRL-- |
The timpani roll
Rolls on timpani are almost exclusively single stroked. Due to the instruments' resonance, a fairly open roll is usually used, although the exact rate and which a roll is played depends greatly on the acoustic conditions, the size of the drum, the pitch to which is it tuned and the sticks being used. For example, wooden sticks will generally require a faster roll than felt ones.