Single Stroke Roll

The single stroke roll is the simplest exercise for caixa and the best place to start.

The single stroke roll is simply a pattern of alternating strokes, starting from the right.

R L R L R L R L R L R L R L R L

Sounds easy? HA! Like many things, it's easy to do this exercise poorly, but to do it well takes practice.

Here are some of the things that you're watching for while doing the single stroke roll:

Tempo is steady, not increasing or decreasing.
The notes are evenly spaced, with the same time gap between R - L and L - R. Ie. you should not be hearing pairs of notes.
Each stroke hits once and bounces back up. No 2nd bounce, no buzzing along the surface.
Wrists and fingers are controlling the sticks. Any movement in your forearm should be absolutely minimal. No moving elbows and shoulders.
Both hands strike with equal force and volume.
Both sticks are raising to the same height.
The tip of each stick travels down and up perpendicular to the surface and does not hit or bounce at an angle.
Your muscles remain relaxed.

Now try it with a metronome. You can play a single note per beat, two notes per beat, three ("triplets") or four notes per beat. Start with a slow tempo and work your way up, all the time concentrating on the points above. You may notice that trying to perfect this simple exercise can become a form of meditation as you focus more and more on the finer aspects of your form.

This exercise is all about building the fundamentals of your technique. This is where it all begins!

Double Stroke Roll

The double stroke roll is simply a pattern of double strokes, starting from the right.

R R L L R R L L R R L L R R L L

Start slowly, using the natural bounce of the stick to flow into the second stroke of each pair. When you're comfortable with the slower pace allow it to build gradually to a faster tempo. With enough practice, you should be able to play at a good pace where each double stroke is actually a controlled bounce, rather than two distinct strokes with the same hand.

All the points to watch for in the single stroke roll above apply equally to the double stroke roll. Try to keep your double strokes as clean and efficient as you can.

Here's another video from InnerBeat Drum School demonstrating the double stroke roll. Note that for most of the video the instructor is playing the pairs "chopped up", until he really puts some speed into the roll and the notes become more evenly spaced. He explains the reason for this about 6 minutes in.

As with most drum exercises, be sure to also practice this exercise to a metronome, and at different tempos.

Most of the drum patterns played in (and outside of) samba consist of single and double strokes, so getting a good grip on these two exercises is a must before moving on.

Single Paradiddle

And now that we have both the single stroke and double stroke rolls working, let's combine them together in the single paradiddle.

If you say the word “Pa – Ra – Did – Dle” out loud, you may get a clue as to the sticking for this pattern.

R L R R L R L L R L R R L R L L

Try this slowly and gradually build up speed, all the time watching your stick control as with the other rudiments. Again, try it with a metronome.

Review

And there you have it, three simple rudiments that you can use to help you build fundamental skills for playing caixa.

If you're interested, there is a whole world of rudiments to explore for playing drums, and a lot of high quality tutorial videos online. Snare Drum TV is a great source of information on various rudiments.

However, our aim is to play samba, and we aren't a drumline (although drumlines are also very cool), so learning tens of rudiments is not necessary. Having the fundamental skills however will make an enormous difference in the long run.

Caixa - Simple Exercises