Pipe Band Drummer

Today on the Ups and Downs is the first of what I hope will be many video blogs! Playing slowly is a skill that takes lots of patience and practice but it can have an amazing affect on your personal…

Welcome to the final blog post of "Roll Call"! This week we'll be looking at the execution and use of rhythm syllables for rolls in a strathspey. As I've discussed in previous blog posts the strathspey is the least understood, most…

In part IX of "Roll Call" we will be learning to identify rolls within the most musically complex style we play: the strathspey. A typical strathspey contains the following rolls types:

• Four stroke rolls
• Five stroke rolls
• Six stroke…

The rolls in a 6/8 march are the most complex you'll find in any style. Whereas the rolls of a 2/4 march contain mostly triplet sixteenth subdivisions, rolls in the 6/8 march contain three distinct subdivisions:

• Triplet eighth notes…

This week we'll be discussing the all important but often forgotten style: The 6/8 March. In competitive piping and drumming the 6/8 march is rarely used. It sometimes makes an appearance in march medleys in the lower grades but…

As discussed in Part V, jigs are written in 6/8, a compound time signature based on groups of three. Today we will discuss the rhythmic breakdown of rolls found in the jig style and the use of rhythm syllables (where…

Welcome to Part V of Roll Call! In this ten part series I'll be focusing on the identification and execution of rolls in the five styles of music we play. Today we'll be concentrating on the jig style. The jig…

In "Roll Call" Part IV I'll be discussing the breakdown and use of rhythm syllables for rolls commonly found in the round reel. This has been a very challenging section to write and has been very "eye-opening" as the exact…

This week, in part three of "Roll Call", we'll be discussing how rolls appear in the round reel. In the pipe band drumming idiom there are two types of reels: those that are played with swing (using dot and…

To add to last week's post, it is possible to use rhythm syllables (as found in The Bare Bones Reading System) to help you figure out the timing of your buzz strokes. In an effort to streamline the post I…

Last week we learned how to identify every type of roll used in a march or reel. Now that we know what the different rolls look like it's time to move on to how they are played. Before we begin…

In an earlier blog post (Know Your Roll), I attempted to help drummers identify a five stroke roll across the five styles of music we play. After some reflection, I realized a change in approach was needed. Instead…