How do I learn to do short rolls? I can do DaBlaBla long rolls (off and on the beat), I think. I hear short rolls. And I have been told that they’re “like long rolls only really short, crammed together.” That hasn’t seemed to help. Long rolls I learned by slowing down and keeping the beat: daaaaaaaablaaaaaablaaaaaa. (I owe it all to you, Jenny.)
How do I do it with short rolls?
/bloomfield
[ This Message was edited by: Bloomfield on 2002-10-11 10:21 ]
“Dahblahblahs”?
“Burythem!”
Say that as fast as you can and you’ll be close to the rhythm of your half-baked bap.
On 2002-10-11 10:20, Bloomfield wrote:
How do I learn to do short rolls? I can do > DaBlaBla > long rolls (off and on the beat), I think. I hear short rolls. And I have been told that they’re “like long rolls only really short, crammed together.” That hasn’t seemed to help. Long rolls I learned by slowing down and keeping the beat: daaaaaaaablaaaaaablaaaaaa. (I owe it all to you, Jenny.)How do I do it with short rolls?
/bloomfield
[ This Message was edited by: Bloomfield on 2002-10-11 10:21 ]
Brother Steve’s page explains them well.
O.k., you have a dotted quarter followed by an eighth - so, a long roll would be 1..2..3 4 (4 on the 8th). The same is used for a short roll, except you’ve lost that dotted quarter and now have only the quarter note before the 8th. You have to play that 1..2..3 as 1234. It’s easier to hear than explain, I’m afraid. Steve’s use of daaaaaaaablaaaaaablaaaaaa is a good description for a long roll. Maybe, think of a short roll as a ba-da-bing 
Teri
Yeah, I read Bro Steve’s (Jenny’s) of course. And I understand them in theory, I think. How do I get my fingers to do them?
From your and Steve’s reply it seems like that you can’t really slow them down for practice purposes, like long rolls (note-cut-note-tap-note), but that I have to learn them at speed, making them sound like (for example) {agf}g2 rather than attempting {a}g{f}g …
Not necessarily Bloomy - I’m sending you something that might help. You can slow everything down then speed it up when your fingers get it.
T
TIA!
Bloomfield, can you elaborate on what you’re trying to do? I’m perfectly capable of playing rolls, but I find Teri’s explanation quite mystifying.
As I understand short rolls (and your note-cut-note-tap-note long roll), you simply leave off the firt eighth note, thus you play cut-note-tap-note, thus getting a quarter note’s worth of rhythm all told.
You can do a “long” roll (like you do now) in a quarter note time just by playing triplet eighth notes. You’ve already got the finger patterns for that down – all you need to do is speed up the notes 33%. That’s hard to do slow (though you can do it if you put your mind to it) but at real tempos this mostly becomes squeeze all the notes in super-fast anyway…
Bloomfield - see if this makes any sense
http://www.nwparalegal.com/music/rambler.html
On 2002-10-11 12:15, Teri-K wrote:
Bloomfield - see if this makes any sense
http://www.nwparalegal.com/music/rambler.html
Teri, if that’s you playing on that, you go, girl!!! 
Well, I’m not sure about the theory, but in practice I see the fast roll as a single entity, compared to the Stevie-standard-roll of three distinct “notes”. So I just have to cut the length of the note by half and then shoot a fast roll! YEEEPI! I’m not sure it makes sens, but it has some sens in my twisted mind!
On 2002-10-11 12:50, madguy wrote:
On 2002-10-11 12:15, Teri-K wrote:
Bloomfield - see if this makes any sense
http://www.nwparalegal.com/music/rambler.htmlTeri, if that’s you playing on that, you go, girl!!! >
Naw, it’s my evil twin
T
Regarding short rolls vs. long rolls - I will be covering these and other issues in the afternoon session of the all-day whistle workshops I am conducting at Lady of the Creek on Saturday October 26.
For more info, please see http://www.ladyofthecreek.com
Bloomfield: just play the “BlaBla” part and leave off the “Da” part and you’ll have a short roll. brett
On 2002-10-11 11:57, colomon wrote:
Bloomfield, can you elaborate on what you’re trying to do? I’m perfectly capable of playing rolls, but I find Teri’s explanation quite mystifying.As I understand short rolls (and your note-cut-note-tap-note long roll), you simply leave off the firt eighth note, thus you play cut-note-tap-note, thus getting a quarter note’s worth of rhythm all told.
Col, Brett: The “long roll minus the first note/dah” doesn’t seem to work for me, because (I think) a cut at the start of the note takes more space or more something than one separating two same-pitch notes. And when I listen to short rolls (there are some in the transcription/clips on the ITM forum, for exampe, Jim Donahue) the don’r really sound like Blabla, the do sound “burythem”. Not having the first statement of the note to establish the ornament makes a big difference somehow.
But I don’t think my problem is so much getting what they are, it’s more finding a way to practice them so that I can do them reliably and without shaking up my rhythm. Tonight I am playing along with Teri’s evil twin, and maybe slowing down some other short rolls.
Thanks all!
There are actually two different common ornaments played in place of a quarter note (or that take up a quarter note of time) and the terms for them varry. What might be causing some confusion is that some people take a long roll and play it as 2 16th notes and an 8th note (changing the rythm from that of a long roll) so they can fit it into the space of a quarter note. My whistle tutor calls this a “condensed long roll”. This may be what you’re hearing in some recordings.
-Brett