Series: Drumming Practice: Rudiments

None of the lesson in this series have been reviewed.

Below are the descriptions for each of the lessons included in the series:

• 7-How to Play the Drums: The Paradiddle Family

  Paradiddle rudiments are a family of rudiments that are all based on the single paradiddle, which is a combination of 8 notes. The single paradiddle has an accent on the first of each sub-group of four notes in the paradiddle. In this lesson, Jim will walk through the single paradiddle, the double paradiddle and the triple paradiddle. These are distinguished from each other by the number of accented notes in each.

  When playing paradiddle rudiments, pay special attention to accents. Remember to make the accented notes loud and play them from the elbow. All the other notes, including the “diddle” (or double stroke) are tap strokes, and are played with the wrists and fingers.

  This lesson is excerpted from a broader course available from www.begindrumming.com. The Begin Drumming course is a 100% comprehensive drumming course which takes you from absolute beginner to expert soloist without any gimmicky short cuts! Through a combination of video and written lessons, the course will teach you proper technique as well as how to read drum music.

• 12-How to Play the Drums: Flam Rudiments

  The “Flam” is a very important and widely used rudiment, both on the drum kit and on snare drum in marching bands etc. There is a whole family of “Flam Rudiments” which are rudiments that have flams in them. We will just learn the most simple ones here. This is the second family of rudiments that Jim has taught us (the other being the Paradiddle family of rudiments).

  Flams use a special type of note called a “Grace note” or “Ornament”. A grace note is included in the music written in very small print just before the main accented note, which is much bigger. The grace note is of course played extremely softly. In fact it should be as soft as you can make it and effectively blended into the note it is attached to, with the stick only just above the pad or drum. A grace note has no rhythmic value of its own, and you cannot play a grace note by itself. It must be attached to a main note. It is sometimes called an “ornament” because it is just there to make the main note sound prettier. The grace note is played just before the main note. They are so close together though, that they are almost at the same time (together, they should sound like flam and not like fuh-lam).

  In addition to learning about how flams should sound and what they are, Jim will also show us how you play flams, flam taps and inverted flam taps.

  This lesson is excerpted from a broader course available from www.begindrumming.com. The Begin Drumming course is a 100% comprehensive drumming course which takes you from absolute beginner to expert soloist without any gimmicky short cuts! Through a combination of video and written lessons, the course will teach you proper technique as well as how to read drum music.

• 23-How to Play the Drums: Advanced Flam

  This is Jim's second lesson on Flam Rudiments (the first is at www.mindbites.com/lesson/1632, and it covered flams, flam taps, and inverted flam taps). In this lesson, we'll cover slightly more advanced flam rudiments. This lesson will detail and teach you the next three: the flam accents, flam drags, flam paradiddles. These flam rudiments are commonly used, so its important that you know them well and practice them often.

  Jim will also talk about how the timing of the grace note will have to vary depending on how quickly you are playing these rudiments. He'll also highlight the use of his arms to get the accent (and not his wrists).

  This lesson is excerpted from a broader course available from www.begindrumming.com. The Begin Drumming course is a 100% comprehensive drumming course which takes you from absolute beginner to expert soloist without any gimmicky short cuts! Through a combination of video and written lessons, the course will teach you proper technique as well as how to read drum music.

• 27-How to Play the Drums: Advanced Paradiddles

  The first paradiddle rudiments you generally learn are the single, double and triple paradiddle (www.mindbites.com/lesson/1627). However, there are lots of other rudiments that are based on the paradiddle. This lesson will team you a few others that are a little bit more difficult, but also very useful to learn: Paradiddle-diddle, Diddle Egg 5, and the Diddle Egg 7.

  The paradiddlediddle is exactly what it sounds - a paradiddle with another “diddle” or double stroke on the end. This means that unlike the earlier paradiddle rudiments, it does not swap hands, so the accent will always be played by the same hand. That is why me must be sure to practise it both ways - starting with the left hand, and the right.

  The Diddle-Egg 5 is one of the more modern paradiddle rudiments. It is simply a paradiddle with an “Egg” on the end. The “Egg” is just another accented note. The Diddle-egg 5 is another rudiment which must be practiced separately for each hand. We can count it: “Par - ra - did - dle - Egg” as we play it.

  The Diddle-egg seven is just like the Diddle-egg five, but it is a paradiddlediddle with an “Egg” rather than a paradiddle with an “Egg”. Because of the extra double stroke, the Diddle-egg 7 swaps hands automatically every time we play it, so we only have to practice it the one way. We can count it: “Par - ra - did - dle - did - dle - Egg - Par - ra - did - dle - did - dle - Egg”.

  This lesson is excerpted from a broader course available from www.begindrumming.com. The Begin Drumming course is a 100% comprehensive drumming course which takes you from absolute beginner to expert soloist without any gimmicky short cuts! Through a combination of video and written lessons, the course will teach you proper technique as well as how to read drum music.

• 29-How to Play the Drums: Special Rudiments

  We have lessons on several different families of rudiments, like the paradiddle family (www.mindbites.com/lesson/1627 and www.mindbites.com/lesson/1649), the flam family (www.mindbites.com/lesson/1632 and www.mindbites.com/lesson/1645), and the roll family (www.mindbites.com/lesson/1662 and www.mindbites.com/lesson/1665) of rudiments. This lesson will teach you some more rudiments which don’t really fit into any family, but are useful to learn anyway. These include: the drag, the single stroke 4, single stroke 7 and the 4-stroke ruff.

  The “drag” does actually fit into a family. Like the flam, it is the essential rudiment for a whole family of rudiments called the drag rudiments. Those are not really covered by other lessons, but with a little imagination, it's not to hard to work out how a drag-tap might go, for example. The drag is just like the flam, although instead of there being one of the little “grace” notes, there is two. These two grace notes are played as a double stroke, and using the natural bounce from the drum.

  The single stroke 4 is exactly what it sounds like - four notes played using single strokes. It is not a very difficult rudiment to understand, or to play slowly, but it is quite a challenge to play it really fast. When we play it fast, the technique we use to play it is a little different.

  The single stroke 7 is easy if you can play the single stroke 4, because it is just a longer version of the same thing.

  The four stroke ruff, is really just a single stroke four in disguise! The only real difference, is that the first three notes are smaller than the last note. They are in fact grace notes, just like we use in the flam or the drag. The four stroke ruff should sound like a drag, but of course it has an extra grace note. Because the last note has to be a little louder than the others, it is tricky to play.

  This lesson is excerpted from a broader course available from www.begindrumming.com. The Begin Drumming course is a 100% comprehensive drumming course which takes you from absolute beginner to expert soloist without any gimmicky short cuts! Through a combination of video and written lessons, the course will teach you proper technique as well as how to read drum music.

• 38-How to Play the Drums: Roll Rudiments

  In this lesson, we will learn about another family of rudiments - the roll rudiments. To start with, we'll learn how to denote these rolls in shorthand. This will allow you to recognize these rolls in the music you're playing and to understand what you should be playing. At a high level, this shorthand involves the depiction of a quaver with slashes through its stem.

  After we understand rolls shorthand, Jim will teach us the 5-stroke roll, the 7-stroke roll, and the buzz roll. The 5-stroke roll is the shortest and simplest of the roll rudiments. The 7-stroke roll involves a dotted note and should be practiced on both hands. The buzz roll is different to the double stroke roll, and is sometimes called the press roll, or multiple bounce roll. It is different from the other rolls we've discussed because it is not measured (and we can't count the number of strokes we play).

  This lesson is excerpted from a broader course available from www.begindrumming.com. The Begin Drumming course is a 100% comprehensive drumming course which takes you from absolute beginner to expert soloist without any gimmicky short cuts! Through a combination of video and written lessons, the course will teach you proper technique as well as how to read drum music.

  A through explanation of how rolls are notated leads this lesson off. Then, 5 stroke and 7 stroke rolls are shown and explained in their slow form, then the speed is increased. The usage of both 5 stroke and 7 stroke rolls in music is also explained.

  Buzz rolls are also introduced and explained in their basic form. The best practice for learning buzz rolls is demonstrated with lots of explanation and demonstration.

• 41-How to Play the Drums: Advanced Roll Rudiments

  So far we have learned three roll rudiments (www.mindbites.com/lesson/1662) - the 5-stroke roll, the 7-stroke roll and the buzz roll. In this lesson, you'll learn about the 6-stroke, the 9-stroke and the 10-stroke roll.

  Recall that the buzz roll is actually more of a technique than a rudiment, and you could in fact play 5 or 7-stroke rolls with the buzz technique for a different sound. You wouldn’t get exactly 5 or 7 strokes though! The “double stroke” or “open” roll is also sometimes called the “measured” roll because unlike the buzz roll, you can measure exactly how many notes are played.

  You may have noticed that the two measured rolls we have learnt - the 5 and 7-stroke - are both odd numbers. You may also have wondered what happened to the 6-stroke roll? Well you can have even numbered rolls but they are a little different. The odd numbers are very common as we have a number of double strokes and finish with one more single stroke. With rudiments like the 6-stroke and 10-stroke roll we have to finish with two quick single strokes instead.

  There are two common versions of the 6-stroke roll - where the two finishing single strokes are fast, or where they are slower. The 9-stroke roll is very common because it fits neatly into a crotchet beat. The 10-stroke is much the same but has an extra note on the end of it.

  This lesson is excerpted from a broader course available from www.begindrumming.com. The Begin Drumming course is a 100% comprehensive drumming course which takes you from absolute beginner to expert soloist without any gimmicky short cuts! Through a combination of video and written lessons, the course will teach you proper technique as well as how to read drum music.