5 Stroke Roll | Introduction

Ready for the 5 Stroke Roll?

Welcome to Practice Drumming's course on the five stroke roll! This rudiment is a fairly basic one, yet incredibly important. Learning the five stroke roll will set you up for this next series of rolls, and the formulas that define them.

Really straight forward, a 5 stroke is just two doubles and a tap:

• RR LL R
• LL RR L

Pretty simple right?

Even though this is not incredibly difficult to understand conceptually, it's important to focus on the basics here: even doubles and a solid tap. This might sound simple, but nailing this rudiment take focused practice!

In the course to follow we start by focusing on just snare work.

First, let's give each lead some repetitions by playing them 4X a piece. Focus on switching the lead cleanly.

Second, we play the rudiment in a traditional way by switching leads every rep. If you find this is too difficult, go back to the previous step! 

Lastly we add the kick as a transition into a full drum set exercise.

Finally, beats & fills.

Moving your rudiments to the drum set is an important part of the journey. To finish off this course we give you 3 beats and 2 fill applications, all which use the 5 stroke in an organic and applicable way.

Making rudiments sound organic on the kit is key, so we suggest that you memorize these patterns and apply them in your everyday playing.