Ten Stroke Roll

This free drum lesson is on one of the drum rudiments from the drum roll family, the ten stroke roll. In the video, Lionel Duperron teaches you how to play and how to practice the ten stroke roll effectively, so you can make the best out of your practice time. The 40 drum rudiments aren’t meant to be played on a practice pad only, so you’ll learn how to apply the ten stroke roll to the drum set through a couple of drum beats and drum fills as well.

Much like the nine stroke roll, the ten stroke roll has four sets of double strokes. It’s in the number of single strokes that they differ – the nine stroke roll has one and the ten stroke roll has two. With such a small difference, learning how to play the nine stroke roll before the ten stroke roll will guaranty that you master this lesson way faster.

If you take a look at the sheet music below, you can see that the ten stroke roll is pretty much like the six stroke roll – the main difference is in the number of doubles. Since the six stroke roll is shorter that the ten stroke roll, and requires the same set of techniques as the ten stroke roll, going through the free drum lesson on the six stroke roll before this one is a great idea as well.

In the video, Lionel Duperron plays the ten stroke roll on the practice pad with 32nd note doubles, while on the drum set he plays them as 16th notes. You can work with whichever note values you want. The important thing is to keep the relation between the doubles and the singles the same one. The ten stroke roll can alternate naturally within itself at slower tempos. At faster tempos it’s a way harder thing to accomplish, so practice leading with both hands separately.

Drum Beats

Exercise #1 is a 16th note half-time tom-tom drum beat. Start by playing the first 8th note of each double on its respective drum, while keeping a steady four-on-the-floor bass drum pattern. Play the snare drum on count 3 and the open hi-hat on the “and” of count 3. Once you have this pattern down, play 16th note double strokes on the toms instead of the 8th note singles. Don’t forget to close the hi-hat on count 4.

Exercise #2 is another 16th note half-time drum beat. The first eight strokes of the ten stroke roll are played on the hi-hat. The single strokes are moved to the snare drum on count 3 and to the hi-tom on the “and” of count 3. After you’re comfortable playing the hand pattern, add the bass drum on all quarter notes.

Drum Fills

With exercise #3, the stock 8th note rock drum beat ends on count 1 of the second bar, instead of on the “and” of count 4 like it usually does. Thus, the ten stroke roll drum fill is played starting on count 2. Taking a look at the sheet music below, you can see that the drum fill features a quarter note bass drum pattern. You can use this idea to spice up your drum fills and to work on your foot independence as well.

Exercise #4 is a 16th note drum fill that has the ten stroke roll starting on count 1. The left hand plays doubles and a single on the snare drum, while the right hand moves its strokes around the toms. This drum fill ends with a unison figure between the hi-tom and the floor tom on count 4.

The drum beats notated before each drum fill on any lesson on this website are here to get you playing a drum fill in context. After you’ve mastered a drum fill, play them with your favorite drum beats instead. If you’d like to further your knowledge on the drum rudiments, we encourage you to learn how to play the eleven stroke roll and the thirteen stroke roll next.