Hard Bop Press Roll drum pattern
A four-bar hard bop groove: spang-a-lang on the ride, a heavy hi-hat foot on 2 and 4, sparse comping, and a crescendoing press roll on beat 4 of bar four that lands on the next 1. Press Play to hear it with a sampled drum kit at 144 BPM, change the tempo or swing, and follow every hit on the grid.
How to count the Hard Bop Press Roll
Count it as: 1 trip let 2 trip let 3 trip let 4 trip let · four bars, the roll in 16th-note triplets on beat 4 of bar four. The pattern is a 4-bar phrase in 4/4 (four-bar 16th-note-triplet grid · six slots per beat, the ride on the eighth-note triplets).
The Hard Bop Press Roll pattern, hit by hit
Each character is one step of the grid and each group is one beat. X is an accented hit, x a normal hit, o a quiet or ghost note and - a rest.
| Voice | Bar 1 | Bar 2 | Bar 3 | Bar 4 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kick | X----- ------ ------ ------ | ------ ------ ------ ----x- | ------ ------ ------ ------ | ------ ------ ------ ------ |
| Snare | ------ ----x- ------ ------ | ----o- ------ ------ ------ | ------ ------ ----x- ------ | ------ ------ ------ oooxxx |
| Pedal hat | ------ x----- ------ x----- | ------ x----- ------ x----- | ------ x----- ------ x----- | ------ x----- ------ x----- |
| Ride | X----- x---o- x----- x---o- | x----- x---o- x----- x---o- | x----- x---o- x----- x---o- | x----- x---o- x----- ------ |
Tempo and feel
Driving and heavy on 2 and 4. The roll should swell, not rush, and throw the band into the next phrase on beat 1. The default tempo is 144 BPM. It plays with 67% swing by default; move the Swing control toward 50% to hear it straight. Slow it down until every hit is controlled, then raise the tempo a few BPM at a time.
How to practise the Hard Bop Press Roll
Play three bars of time: the ride with a firm hi-hat foot on 2 and 4. Practise the roll alone: six even strokes on beat 4, soft to loud, hand to hand. Join them, landing the accented ride and kick on beat 1 without slowing down.
Variations to try next
Start the roll on the let of 3 for a longer swell. Play the roll every eight bars instead of every four. Play the roll as a real buzz roll, pressing each stroke into the head.
Where to hear this feel
Records in this family include Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers records of the late 1950s. A practice study of hard bop time with the crescendoing press roll associated with Art Blakey, the roll that swells on beat 4 at the end of a phrase and lands on the next downbeat. Bars one to three keep spang-a-lang on the ride with a heavy hi-hat foot on 2 and 4 and sparse snare and kick comping on the triplet partials. The grid has six 16th-note-triplet slots per beat, so the ride skip notes sit on the let of the eighth-note triplet (the fifth slot, on the Swing control) while the roll can be written denser. The kit has no buzz-roll sound, so the press roll is approximated by six crescendoing strokes hand to hand, and the crash that usually lands on beat 1 is an accented ride with the kick. The comping and the four-bar length are informed choices. It is authored for practice, not transcribed.