Music notation and rolls

**Doc_d** · 02-16-2010, 05:06 PM

My music teacher gave me a snare piece to learn. I didn't look it over very well before I left and when I sat down today to learn it I noticed it has some rolls in it. I'm not very familiar with roll notation. Instead of waiting until next week to ask him about the notation I was wondering if someone could point me in the right direction.

The piece is in 2/4 time. There are basically two types of rolls on the piece. One is an eighth note with two slashes on the stem tied to a quarter. The other is a half note with 3 slashes on stem.

I did some searching on google and couldn't find a good explanation of how roll notation works. Are these just double stroke rolls where each double is played on a 16th? Is there a significance to the two slashes versus three slashes on the stem?

My guess is that the eighth note tied to the quarter note is played as....

Code:

+ A 2
LLRRL (like a 5 stroke roll without the accent on the last note)

and I'm guessing the half note with the three slashes on the stem is played as....

Code:

1 E + A 2 E + A
RRLLRRLLRRLLRRLL

Are the rolls always played with the same number of strokes regardless of tempo?

Thanks in advance!
Doc

**xsabers** · 02-16-2010, 05:38 PM

An eighth note with 2 slashes tied to the following note is a 5-stroke roll (press or double-stroke). Typically played RRLLR or LLRRL.

The half note with 3 slashes is a 17-stroke roll if it is tied to a following note, exactly as you have noted but finish the phrase by adding the connected note RRLLRRLLRRLLRRLLR. If it is not tied to the following note and is followed by a rest, then omit the single stroke at the end (this would be more likely if it were played as a press or buzz roll).

Keep up the good study habits!