Long rolls on A and B
Let's continue practising those evenly spaced long rolls with some examples on the notes A and B - which you may find more difficult at first.
Using long rolls on A
A lovely old reel is The jolly tinker. It has five parts, the first of which gives us plenty of opportunities to put in some very satisfying long rolls on A.
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First line of The jolly tinker, with long rolls on A (55K) |
As well as the rolls, notice the cuts (not marked on the score) used to separate the two ds straddling bars 3 & 4 and bars 7 & 8.
A-rolls may take you a little longer to master. Everything is done with one hand, and leaving your middle finger down while you cut with the first finger and tap with the ring finger is bound to be awkward at first.
Rolls on B
Here's the first line of a jig, for a change, and a very pretty tune too - The shores of Lough Gowna.
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First line of The shores of Lough Gowna, with long rolls on B (45K) |
Like A-rolls, rolls on B will probably prove tricky. Again, everything has to be done with one hand. But with practice, you'll get them down nicely.
Please note that we are still practising pure "dah-blah-blah" - trying to keep the three notes of our long roll the same length. On the next page, we'll look at a slightly different kind of roll, where this evenness is vital (at least, for the way I like these new rolls to be played). Later on, we'll revisit our long rolls and look at other ways of shaping them.
Follow the link below to move on to what I call "Off-beat rolls".
Next page: Off-beat rolls
Previous page: Long rolls and how to use them
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Updated 14 October 2004