NoteAtlas

PAS #9 · Roll rudiments

Seven Stroke Roll

7 main strokes over 2 beats. Read it, hear it, and slow it down until it is even.

RR LL RR L

Seven Stroke Roll in standard drum notation with sticking letters, right, right, left, left, right, right, left44RRLLRRL

Capital letters are full strokes; small letters are the quiet grace notes of a flam or drag.

2-beat cycle · loops until you stop it · both hands on the snareStopped

What the seven stroke roll is

Three double strokes resolving onto one accented single. Longer than the five stroke roll, so it usually spans a beat and a half before the accent lands.

How to practice it

  • Three doubles then one accent — think "diddle, diddle, diddle, hit".
  • Keep the doubles low so the accent stands out without being forced.
  • Start it with either hand: the accent lands on the opposite hand to the one you start with.

Where it leads

The seven stroke roll belongs to the roll rudiments family, and it feeds directly into the nine, eleven and thirteen stroke 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.

Seven Stroke Roll drum notation
Seven Stroke Roll in standard drum notation — sticking RR LL RR L, notated on the snare line.

Rudiment data last updated . Every diagram here, in the printable PDF and in the chart image comes from one dataset, so the paper and the screen cannot disagree.