Free Drum Rudiments

Like a bobblehead shifting its weight one direction and then the other – like a marching band placing one foot in front of the other in unison – like a ping pong ball bouncing to one side of the table and back – so, too, is the Single Stroke Roll in drumming.

In its simplest form a single stroke drum roll is simply alternating hands by allowing only one beat per hand. This snare drum rudiment may be thought of as the easiest, but it is also the platform for learning many other drumming skills.

When the single stroke roll is added as a standard feature of your drumming practice sessions it will provide endurance along with building strength in your wrists and hands.

The repetition of right, left, right, left (without variation) can leave some drummers feeling bored and tempted to try branching out into other rudiments. Drum instructors still drill their drumming students in mastering this skill and never assuming they are finished learning it.

The reason this is important is because this rudiment is a finesse skill. You will have a dominant hand. The hand you use to write with will be more skilled at drumming than the other. The single stroke roll requires that all beats are uniform. This means that in drum lessons both hands must cooperate in order to achieve uniform sound, which is not a naturally occurring phenomenon.  

To help with achieving a nice even sound, remember to always practice the roll starting with alternate hands.

Become close friends with your practice pad and discipline yourself to routinely practice the single stroke roll.

Right

Left

Right

Left 

And keep going…

The Single Paradiddle is a popular drumming technique that is often first applied to use with snare drums. The standard application is for the sticks to roll with the following repeating pattern – Right – Left – Right – Right — Left – Right – Left – Left. This is all done in equally spaced beats.

There is a bright punch (accent) to the first beat in each four-stroke set. In other words it might look like this. RIGHT– Left – Right – Right — LEFT – Right – Left – Left. This pattern repeats itself over and over when practicing this snare drum rudiment.

As you continue with your drum lessons you will find that the single paradiddle can allow you to move effectively beyond a single snare drum by incorporating this skill to a combination of other drums and cymbals in your kit.

The single paradiddle is a key practice and warm up exercise that can be used in multiple music styles. This skill is as at home in rock music as it might be in jazz-fusion.

For the listener a single paradiddle may sound like a random beat, but the drummer knows that by applying this drum rudiment along with other primary drumming skills they are able to help the rest of the band stay on track and in time.

A drummer cannot be a loose cannon. They must be so prepared to explore music through the complimentary lens of highly specific drum rudiments that they become the percussive glue that holds a band together.

In many cases that glue is a single paradiddle – RIGHT– Left – Right – Right — LEFT – Right – Left – Left.

Remember to start off by practicing this rudiment slowly and evenly. Speed will soon come with practice.

A common misconception among non-drummers is that the only skill needed to play a drum kit is to hit the drum with a pair of sticks. Anyone who has learned to play drums will forever argue that this is a simplistic and inaccurate view of percussion.

Learning the dominant drum rudiments allows the drummer to blend various disciplines to create unique textures to the music they play. Without drumming rudiments the player will not be adequate to the task of keeping time for a band.

The National Association of Rudimental Drummers (NARD) is responsible for creating the list of 13 primary and 13 additional drum rudiments that places drum lessons as an important point in developing the skills needed to be able to play with virtually all other drummers.

When these drumming rudiments are learned a drum instructor can ask to have virtually any rudiment played and the student should be able to play it without a second thought.

When a student learns the skill on a snare drum they take a second large step by learning to play each rudiment faster and faster.

Unlike “Animal” on the Muppets, drummers fine-tune their skill so what appears to be mayhem during a rock concert is truly a percussive symphony featuring incredible skill. These are the same skills that allow a student to take a drum kit and help a high school band fire up a crowd. An individual that has mastered drumming rudiments can place a soft touch on their skill and provide the perfect accent for a slow jazz song that leaves the audience breathless.

In singing you learn to stay on pitch. With most instruments you learn how to play correct notes. However, when it comes to drums there is neither pitch nor note to consider – only the beat of the drum.

In general there are 13 standard drumming rudiments required of all drummers. Those rudiments increase to 26, 40 or even eighty separate skills that can be combined to create individual percussive sound.

Dictionary.com defines rudiment as, “The elements or first principles of a subject.” In other words there are core skills needed when learning drumming rudiments.

Since snare drums have no definitive notes to play there was a need to develop a system that would allow drums to produce the timing for a band. While that is true there were other reasons to learn specific drum rudiments or skills.

In the 1600’s Swiss drummers developed drum rudiments that allowed multiple military drummers to play in unison. If they all knew the rudiments and the order they came in then the drummers could play their percussion instruments as one. That uniform idea spread to France, England, the United States and around the world.

Rudiments were especially important to American military operations. Trumpeters were often shot, but if they survived their trumpets would often be hit. The loss of many trumpets and trumpeters brought about the use of ‘drummer boys’ who gained a crash course series of drum lessons and then hid amongst the soldiers during troop movements and battle. The rudiments they learned could signal the soldiers as to the plans of their commanders.

Drumming rudiments aren’t for the timid or weak of heart. There are specific muscles that must be developed for extended drumming, and the skills you need will take discipline to develop.

Some of the more common drum rudiments include the long role, the five-stroke roll, the seven-stroke roll, the flam, the flam accent, the flam paradiddle, the flam acue, the ruff, the single drag, the double drag, the single ratamacue, and the triple ratamacue. These are what are typically thought of as the NARD 13 essential drum rudiments.

Each drum lesson will feature one or more of these skills. These drum rudiments should be learned and mastered before moving on to more advanced rudiments. The reason for this is that some rudiments are hybrids or mutations of more than one discipline. You need to know how to play basic rudiments in your sleep before you move on with a newer hybrid.

In all rudiments you will need to know how many beats occur using each stick and you will also need to know which stick you will use first. There will be a distinct order to your drum lesson and the skills you will take home or on the road.

You may find visual instruction online, through a DVD or through a qualified percussion instructor.

Think of drumming rudiments as an internal conductor that does not hider your music from being played, but frees you to bring a new level of creativity to your music. Without rudiments there would simply be individualized chaos when it comes to anything that originates from your drum kit.