Hi everyone, I don't play drums, but i was just wondering how you get a drum roll, i've never been able to do it - it just come out as lots of uneven bangs!

Practice I suppose, start very slowly and evenly - crotchets if you like, at a set tempo. Then move on to quavers, semiquavers, demis....

Yep, it's just practice. Getting the co-ordination and wrist flexibilty, and learning to respond to the natural bounce of the drum skin and bouyancy of the sticks.

Matt

so it's just like playing notes over and over again really fast, you don't move the sticks in a different way then?

I was taught it's 2 with each stick alternating if that makes sense. (It was about 35 years ago... )

There are two types of roll, single stroke which is one of each stick and double stoke which is two of each stick. You just start of really slow and then in time it speeds up, the bounce on the skin helps. My son has practice pads on his kit and finds rolling easier when the pads are taken off.

Actually, there are 3 types, you forgot buzz roll.
Single stroke: does what it says on the tin. Metronome practice, practice on a pillow to make sure you're getting the correct action.
Double stroke: RRLLRRLLRRLL etc. You only hit the first of each pair, the 2nd stroke is a rebounce. The main trick is picking the stick up after the 2nd bounce, and getting the 2 bounces close enough together. You also need a smooth change from one hand to the other, and a constant dynamic. A lot of this relies of the height of the sstick, and force upon it. Hardest type. Again, lots of practice on a pillow will help, and metromone practice.
Buzz: Drop the stick on the drum head, allow it to die right away. Repeat with other hand. Trick is to release the other stick at exactly the right moment for the roll to sound consistant and stay at one dynamic. Easiest type. Only possible to practice on drum/pad.

The answer above is very good, however the "buzz" roll was always called the Press roll which is more accurate as it should be controlled by pressing the back of the stick to keep it bouncing and the secret is to adjust this pressure to the speed of bounce and tempo. The book I use "Gene Krupa Drum Method" was written about 70 years ago but still makes good sense

I am not a drummer, but had always believed (someone must have told me way back in my infancy) that drum rolls were RLRRLRLLRLRRLRLL, and that drummers practise by saying "Mummy Daddy Mummy Daddy". I do this at intervals when I'm bored (with my hands on my knees), thinking that one day I'll get hold of a drum and be able to do an impressive drum roll... Have I been deluded all this time then?

Possibly...

Yes...that's a paradiddle. Or however it's spelt. Just a rudiment.

The 'Press' roll is all very good (although I haven't heard this term before) but also may make people press into the drum? (maybe the pscycology of it?!) But what noone has said yet, except from Bohemian who touched on it by talking about the pillow, is that it should be your fingers underneath the sticks controlling the 'bounce' and in many situations you do not want to be relying on the rebound.

Indeed. I just flail the sticks around and hope for the best. It's never failed me yet.