How to Play Rolls on the Tin Whistle

Think of a roll as three notes of the same pitch played without the tongue, where the fingers supply the separations instead. The first pulse is the plain note. The second starts with a cut, the bright break from above. The third starts with a tap, the dip from below. Slowed right down that is five events (note, cut, note, tap, note), but at speed you never count it that way. You feel three even pulses with a ripple running through them.

A long roll fills the time of three eighth notes: in a jig that is one whole beat, and in a reel it is the dotted quarter that turns up so often on E, G and A. In ABC and sheet music a roll is marked with a tilde (~) before or above the note. In a tab, you spot the place for one as a long note, or as the same note written three times running.

The short roll drops the plain first pulse. It starts directly with the cut as the note arrives, then the tap: cut-note, tap-note, two pulses that fill a quarter note. It is the version you reach for when the tune gives you less room, and it is especially common in reels. Drowsy Maggie opens on a quarter-note E that players very often fill with a short roll.

Learn the long roll first. It gives you a moment to settle on the plain note before the ornaments arrive, and once it is even at speed, the short roll is the same motion with the first pulse removed. The hard part of a short roll is starting cleanly on the cut with no lead-in, so expect it to feel exposed for a while.

A roll uses the same cutting finger and the same tapping finger the note uses on its own, so if you know the cut and tap maps, you already know this one. E: cut with the top-hand ring finger, tap with the bottom-hand ring finger. F-sharp: cut with the top-hand ring finger, tap with the bottom-hand middle finger. G: cut with the top-hand index, tap with the bottom-hand index. A: cut with the top-hand index, tap with the top-hand ring finger. B: cut with the top-hand index, tap with the top-hand middle finger. The second octave repeats the same pairs.

Two notes cannot be rolled. Low D has every hole covered, so there is nothing below it to tap; players decorate it with a crann instead, a run of quick cuts with different fingers. C-sharp has no holes covered, so there is nothing to cut. Rolls on A and B use only the top hand, and the whistle tends to wobble as those fingers move, so rest a bottom-hand finger on the body of the whistle below the last hole to steady it.

First, play three plain Es of exactly equal length on a slow metronome, tonguing each one. This is the skeleton, and it has to be even before anything goes on it. Next, keep the rhythm but stop tonguing the second E and cut it instead. Then stop tonguing the third E and tap it instead. You now have a long roll with a tongued start. Play it over and over at the same slow tempo and listen only for evenness: three equal eighth notes, not 'da-diddle' with a short middle.

Only then raise the tempo, a few clicks at a time. Somewhere along the way the five events stop sounding like separate movements and merge into one shape. That is the roll arriving, and it usually happens later than you want it to. When it holds at a moderate jig tempo, move the same routine to G and A, then put a single roll into a tune you already know well. The long roll drill lays this progression out as a daily exercise.

A mushy top half almost always comes from the cut. Cutting with the lowest finger that is down gives a jump too small to hear, so switch to the ring or index finger from the map above. A lopsided roll, where the second half sounds squashed, comes from a late tap: isolate the tap and drill it against the metronome. A roll that sounds like three different notes means both ornaments are too slow and are being heard as pitches.

Two misunderstandings cause most of the rest. A roll is not two cuts. It is a cut above and a tap below, with the same note sounding underneath throughout. And a roll is not added on top of the rhythm: it is the rhythm. If the beat drifts when you add a roll, the roll is wrong, however clean each movement is. Keep the air completely steady through all of it, because a sag in the breath at the tap is a common reason a roll fades at the end.

Jigs are the gentlest place to start, because a long roll fits one beat exactly. Morrison's Jig opens on a long E, the classic place for a long roll on E, and The Kesh Jig gives you long rolls on G and then A in its first two bars. In the slip jig The Butterfly, the long F-sharp in each phrase takes a roll that uses the same cutting finger as E.

For reels, try the short roll on E at the start of Drowsy Maggie once your long rolls are steady. Add one roll at a time to a tune you can already play without thinking, and only add the next one when the first is seamless.