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My Chilean friend explained to me once about the proper pronunciation of the r and rr in Spanish that was never explained in any book. Note: my friend is a linguist, not just an average speaker....
in Spanish....
a) rr = trilled, always
b) r in a word with a vowel on each side is a short r, not a trilled r. (such as para)
c) any situation where the r is the initial sound, it is trilled, so if you begin a sentence with "Roberto." "Roberto fue al cine," then "Roberto" begins with a trilled r.
d) an r followed by a consonant is trilled, so for instance in Roberto, there are two trilled r's, neither of which is an rr.
It finally made sense when I learned ALL of the rules and then began to listen to native speakers and realized that this is why so many r's are trilled and not just rr's. It's not just r vs. rr. Sometimes r sounds like rr. It depends on where it's located in the word, sentence or phrase. Until I knew these rules, I thought that many Spanish speakers exaggerated their r's as rr's, but now I know that they are following the rules of spoken Spanish. Also note that you have to be very careful to not trill your r's when it's inappropriate. It sounds odd. If you want to err in one direction or the other, then don't trill at all. Native speakers will understand you JUST FINE without the trilled r/rr and in normal speech it doesn't stand out much.
-ZTX
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