Rolling the R

I don't know how many people have told me that they quit trying to learn spanish because they couldn't roll their r's. They claimed that was really holding them back and they quit because of it.

It seems really strange to me. I've studied Spanish off and on for a total of 8 years I guess and until the last week I couldn't coax more than a couple of ticks out of a rolled r. I can't say that I've practiced and practiced day in and day out. I think I may have tried a few times, but gave up on the idea and worked on vocabulary instead.

As I've increased and improved my listening skills I've noticed that not all native spanish speakers roll their r's. This actually makes sense (how many English speakers do you know that have something that they don't pronounce "correctly".) But at the same time it makes sense that our tongues should be more or less the same and it should be possible for someone to learn how to do it.

It was funny, the other day I was saying el tenedor (the fork) and thinking about a telenovela I had seen where the priest had dramatically rolled the r's at the end of words. Without really trying out came a rolled r that caught me by surprise. Maybe 2-3 seconds. The rest of the day I practiced off and on. In the shower, the car, whenever I had a chance by myself to try words with either the rr that should be rolled or the trailing r which could for dramatic effect.

I also read and pretty much verified that I had the tongue in the right place for this. Essentially you need to have your tongue curved up so that the tip of it (just) touches the roof of your mouth about where the roof of your mouth slopes back behind your teeth. Really more than trying to voice the sound I've found I make more of an haaaaa sound which causes the tongue to essentially flap in the breeze of my exhale.

I read on one site someone claiming that it was really easy to roll your r's, just the same as purring. Well... for those of us that can't/haven't purred before.... that's not very helpful.

There is a common rhyme though that you can use to practice:

Erre con erre cigarro,Erre con erre barril.
Ra'pido corrren los carros, Los carros de ferrocarril.

Sorry, the accent didn't seem to work out there, but it gives you the idea anyway. I understand that Beyonce used this rhyme to practice for hours to get the sound down. I've also found that the tongue can get a bit tired at times.

If it doesn't come at first don't let that stop you from learning the language, push ahead, keep trying and find other things to learn. Of course, try to get a sound as close as possible to the native rr's, but if you can't don't quit!