Fifteen Stroke Roll

What the fifteen stroke roll is

Seven double strokes and an accent. At this length the roll covers most of a bar, so it is usually counted in beats rather than in strokes.

How to practice it

• Seven doubles and an accent nearly fill a bar: plan where the accent lands before you start.
• If the doubles drift unevenly, slow down — speed hides unevenness, it does not fix it.
• Record yourself; the middle doubles are where most players lose the pulse.

Where it leads

The fifteen stroke roll belongs to the roll rudiments family, and it feeds directly into the seventeen stroke roll and full-bar measured rolls. Get it even at a slow tempo before you move on — every rudiment built on top of it inherits whatever unevenness you leave here.

Reading the notation above

Both hands play the snare drum, so every notehead sits in the third space of the staff and the sticking letters underneath tell you which hand plays which note. Capital letters are full strokes; small letters are grace notes. There are no grace notes in this rudiment, so every note is a full stroke. The > marks above the staff are accents: hit those notes harder. Full details in the drum notation guide.