I’m looking for newb advice. I am starting to play songs with rolls in them, but my rolls need work. What I lack is manual dexterity, my left middle finger especially won’t move on beat. I guess I’d never had a real relationship with that finger before (polite girl that I am).
How did most people learn how to play perfect on beat rolls? Do you just play them over and over in songs until they sound right or do you grit it out with a metranome for an hour a day?
I think what worked best for me was practicing continuous rolls – just hold the base note and alternate between cuts and taps in rhythm. Start slow and work your way up to speed.
I’m my metronome’s bitch for an hour a day. 
The only rolls giving me problems are the A & B.
The standard link to Bro. Steve’s site is now inserted:
That’s a cool site, I’ve never run into it 
Theres the famous http://www.whistletutor.com/ which I’m pretty sure helps with stuff along those lines.
I’ll second Brother Steve’s site, and the use of a metronome.
I’m trying to move out of the dah blah blah phase into real songs. I’ve been lax with the metronome because I live with other people and am too embarrassed to play the same notes over and over within earshot.
My approach so far has been to play songs with lots of cuts and strikes hoping that it would make the transition easier. Thanks for your advice. I’m going to try the metronome.
I must admit, I had the same fear when I first started practicing my saxophone in sixth grade. I didn’t want to play anything at a volume that people could hear it unless it was a song! But eventually you learn that they don’t really care what you’re playing, and they probably don’t want to hear any of it, so you may as well play what’s going to help you most.
Hope this won’t be taken amiss, but if you’re learning traditional Irish music, they’re tunes, not songs. If you go to a session with some knowledgeable ITM players, they may call you on it if you say something about playing a “song.” (There’s at least one member of this board who had that embarrassing situation arise - [no, not me - she might share it if she reads this … or not]).
Well meant,
Susan
No offense taken. Unfortunately the rules of the Universe state that we have to start off ignorant. Thanks for the correction, now I have one less means of embarrassing myself when someday I am ready to find a session 
.
-Ann
As always, start slow and build speed.
The A and B rolls are taking me maddeningly long to get decent at. I wonder if I’m not built for them.
A rolls are my bugbear. I’ve posted this before, but what I often do is use the RIGHT index finger to make the strike on the G. With a little practice, I found I can sneak the finger up there and back in plenty of time except in the fastest of tunes. An alternative is to use my right index finger to tap on the fingernail of the left index, thereby tapping that finger down on the G. That requires lifting the Right index quite a bit though.
The secret with any fast ornamentation or tune is to play it slow a lot of times and when I say a lot I mean as long as it takes.
I play GHB’s and when I got my Deger E-Chanter for some reason it could not “see” my Birl (a double tap on the bottom hole with the right little finger) which I did in the “down and across style”. I decided to learn the Tap and curl method instead which it could see. It took 6 months of slow practice to get it up to speed but my Birls are now better than ever.
Don’t loose heart, slow to fast will work if you persevere but don’t force yourself to practice if your not in the mood; try to enjoy your practice and a little often is better than a lot every now and then.
Good luck
John S
I think I remember Bloomfield saying it took a year of steady work to get his rolls right—he said he did them over and over for a year. This is meant to be encouraging—if Bloomfield can do it, anyone can! JUST KIDDING!!! It is encouraging because it shows that you aren’t trying to do something easy and that it takes a long time for anyone to do it well.
Rolls are hard. As my teacher says, learn to love mind numbing repetition.
So true. 
This is a hugely encouraging thread. The whistle seems so easy, and it’s good to be reminded that it takes work and time to achieve proficiency.
I was going to say something similiar. I wanted to know what people did to get over that hump and its encouraging to know everyone has had to work hard and it came with time and patience.
My new resolution: not to worry that roll practice is bothering my sister and practice slowly with faith.
Lest you misunderstand that ALL units of Irish music must be called
“tunes”, let me put forth this axiom: “If it has words, it’s a song, if not,
it’s a tune”. Please correct me as necessary, but such has been my
experience.
A song is something you sing, a tune is something you play. Seems pretty clear cut to me.