Some "long rolls" and how to use them

Before reading this page, you need to be familiar with my method of learning to play rolls - the dah-blah-blah method.

As you know, the previous page was devoted to doing. Now you are permitted a little thinking, a little intellectual fodder. (Just a little mind you.) If you have reached this page, you should be able to do a convincing "dah-blah-blah" on a low F#. So, how about some non-infantile language?

The device I showed you how to execute on the previous page is generally known as a long roll.

What you did, in effect, was to play three F# notes of equal length, articulated by tonguing, by a cut, and by a tap respectively. That is your basic long roll - it's that simple.

By the way, long rolls are often played in a slightly different manner, with the three notes not evenly spaced. For now, though, I think it's important for you to master this basic technique of even spacing. I'll explain why on a later page.

Also, there are a couple of important varieties of roll that are not "long rolls". We'll look at those later also.

Notation for long rolls

Before we go on to look at what you can do with a long roll, let's reinforce what we learned in the dah-blah-blah method by looking at the proper notation for a long roll.



The first example shows you the whole picture. The three eighth-note F#s are your three syllables ("dah-_ah-_ah") and the cut (grace note of A) and the tap (grace note of E) are your "bl"s to fill in the blanks in the phrase, if you see what I mean.

And just to drive home the point, the second example shows a cut tacked on the front of an F#-E-F# sequence. This is a perfectly valid and lovely-sounding ornament - one that you should use - but it is not a roll.

Now that you've seen how a roll could be written out, we can forget all about it! I won't be using this full notation much in these pages. I'll use shorthand, and you'll use your ears...

However, if you look at some meticulously transcribed settings of Irish tunes (such as those in Brendan Breathnach's Ceol Rince na hÉireann Vol. II), where the rolls are written out in this fashion, you'll know what's what.

May 2004. In his Essential guide to Irish flute and tin whistle, Grey Larsen argues that the notation shown above left (among others) is misleading, and goes on to propose a complex alternative system of symbols for notating rolls and other ornaments. While he does have a point, the alternative is... well, a complex system of symbols! Which, in my view, is not really necessary.

As we all know, musical notation cannot convey everything about musical performance, and we accept it as a series of conventions. The convention above is widely used in Irish music circles and I think it illustrates what I showed you on the last page pretty well. (As I just said, I'm not actually going to use this notation again in these pages, but with this aside I'm hoping to stave off a flood of emails telling me I'm wrong, according to Guru Larsen!)

Using long rolls on F#

OK, so we have learned to play a nice, evenly spaced long roll on an F#. Where can we put it?

Since the above example is in jig rhythm, let's try an F# roll in a jig. Here's an obvious place to put one - on a dotted quarter note on the "on" beat. Below is the jig The rambling pitchfork. Our F# roll can fit nicely on the dotted quarter note at the start of the first bar.

First line of The rambling pitchfork, with long rolls on F#(45K)

I've indicated the roll by means of an asterisk (*) symbol. Most often, you'll see a curly dash (~) above the note to indicate a roll. I have used an asterisk

1. to remind you that it's always optional and
2. because the "~" looks ugly in my ABC music program!

Please remember you do not have to play a roll every time you arrive at this place in the tune. For the sake of the listener, and for your own amusement, vary by playing F#-E-F# from time to time (maybe with a cut as shown in the "not a roll" example above), or three separate F#s, or just one long plain F#, which you can dress up with a tap or a slide. 

Another example of a long roll on F#, in a reel this time, is the first note in The wise maid, given below.

First line of The wise maid, with long rolls on F# (??K)

Rolls on other notes

So far we've only covered the note of F#. To play rolls on other notes, follow the fingering patterns you learned for cuts, and practise getting a nice even dah-blah-blah:

	To play a roll on E...	cut with the G finger	and tap with the D finger
	To play a roll on F#...	cut with the G finger	and tap with the E finger
	(You've done that one already...)
	To play a roll on G...	cut with the G finger	and tap with the F# finger
	To play a roll on A...	cut with the B finger	and tap with the G finger
	To play a roll on B...	cut with the B finger	and tap with the A finger

Don't be surprised if you find rolls on A and B, and particularly A, more difficult. Your top-hand ring finger is weak, and you may find it hard to execute a convincing tap at first. But with practice, you'll get rolls happening nicely here too.

Also, to play a roll on B, you'll probably find it necessary to support the whistle with one of the fingers of your bottom hand. You can either use your little finger (resting it on the body of the whistle below the bottom tone hole), or your ring finger (covering the bottom tone hole). I prefer to use the ring finger. But be warned: if you use your ring finger, certain makes of loud and/or expensive whistles (the kind I don't play very often) will misbehave when you use this technique in the top octave, causing the top B to go out of tune, or squawk.

Long rolls on G

Here's a common and not-too-difficult tune to practise your long G rolls on: The banshee.

First line of The banshee, with long rolls on G (90K)

For these G rolls, try a slightly different technique for the tap part. Imagine the first and second fingers or your bottom hand are taped together, and make the tap cover two holes simultaneously. This is what I do nearly all the time. I find it gives a slightly more satisfying sound to the tap, and it also comes naturally in many G tunes that do not use the note F#. The first line of The banshee has no F#s in fact. In a tune like this, it's natural to keep these two fingers "glued" together.

Long rolls on E

Let's go to E rolls now, leaving the tricky A and B rolls for later. In fact E rolls have their own difficulty, which is getting your 3rd finger to tap snappily. The first line of the well-known reel The morning dew gives you plenty of opportunities to try long E rolls.

First line of The morning dew, with long rolls on E (60K)

Let's move on to a new page to tackle long rolls on A and B.

Next page: More long rolls: A and B

Previous page: The dah-blah-blah method
Site contents: Back to the home page

Updated 15 October 2004

Home page (full menu)
Next page
Previous page

On this page
Notation for long rolls
Long rolls on F#
Fingering for rolls on other notes
Long rolls on G
Long rolls on E