Drum Rudiments?

[Crogen]

Hi,

How do I know when I should move onto the next drum rudiment? I find myself practicing the same rudiment over and over again. For example I am quite good at the single stroke roll.
But when do I know if I am done with that one to go onto the next?

Thanks!

Example: Am I supposed to learn it this well before moving onto the next one?

http://drumrudiments.com/drum-rudime...m-rudiment.htm

[DrumRookie]

Your never done with it, you always have to keep practicing them. But if you have mastered the single stroke roll, and can play along solidly to a metronome at fast, slow, and in between tempos, your ready move on. Of course, your still going to want to practice the single stroke roll to keep it up to par, but you can try different ones and a few at a time. Just take it nice and slow and don't rush.
You said your quite good at the single stroke, so apple that same method to the rest of them that you do.

Vic Firth's website has a great bundle of videos and practices for each rudiment. I highly recommend you check them out.

So I would say if your comfortable with the single stroke roll, move on to doing a paradiddle, double stroke roll, or any of the other ones.

Oh, and welcome to DrumChat!

[trickg]

I say find a hanful of rudiments and hit them in your regular every day practice, and work on each of them for a bit of time rather than working just one at a time.

Two of the most important rudiments are your single and double stroke rolls, but a few others to check out would be:

Paradiddle
Flam-taps
Flam-accents
Basic accent patterns (single strokes accenting in a triplet feel)

[wolvie56]

Set up a specific speed (BPM), that you might want to achieve. Then don't go to the next rudiment until you can do the previous rudiment reasonably error free at that speed. You need to at least try them all, and don't spend all your time on just a couple. Welcome to the chat room. One of the best on the net.

[Crogen]

Thanks a lot, that helped. And I'll check out Vick firth's site.




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[SpatzST]

If you want to get good at rudiments really fast, this is what I do. Put a movie on your TV. Get your practice pad and a metronome. Watch the movie while listening to your click and just play ONE RUDIMENT for the entire movie (it does not need to be a fast speed, infact its better slow). I tell you, I am a whizz at six strike rolls now because of this

[Drumbledore]

Work on your single strokes at quarter note values ('1', '2', '3', '4'), eighth note values ('1+', '2+', '3+', '4+') & sixteenth note values ('1e+a', '2e+a') etc BOTH with right hand lead and left hand lead, so that you don't get too right hand dominated (assuming you're a right-handed player to start off with).

Practice this both on a practice pad as well as an acoustic snare drum as much as possible (or tolerable with others living close by, unless you really have to keep it quiet). Why I say so is that with an actual drum, you also need to practice at various dynamics (soft, loud and all points in between) so that you not only know a particular rudiment at various tempos, but you can also play fast yet light, or slow yet loud, not just fast and loud or slow and soft. Maintaining dynamic control independently of tempo and note value is the mark of any great player, of any style really, and it is certainly the mark of a player who has not just learned, but really mastered a particular rudiment.

Once single strokes are under your belt, another important one is your double stroke roll. Once again, like with the above example, get control of the counts, tempos and dynamics, leading with either hand. This one usually trips up a number of novice right-handed players (I do a 'mirrored' approach with one or two left handed students......get them to work equally or more with their right hand-lead singles and doubles), because unless you're lucky enough to have a great degree of ambidexterity, everyone should work on their weaker hand equally or more than their dominant hand. Same with feet when it comes to double-kick players.

Now, I know most drummers will go "okay, paradiddles are next, right?" Well, so long as you are absolutely sure that you can equally play right-hand lead as well as left-hand lead singles and doubles in the first place, then yes, go ahead. BUT what has worked with a lot of students and former students of mine is that I get them to work on triplets first, then we move onto the paradiddles, rather than the other way around. For those who who have a weaker left or right hand, triplets are great because rather than thinking "single, single, double" when going RLRR, then flipping it around and planning it ahead in your head, with triplets all you're doing is single strokes, just flipping the accent between right hand lead and left hand lead every time you go "1+a, 2+a", "RLR, LRL". It's a very easy way to eventually immerse yourself into any alternating rudiments such as the paradiddle, the five-stroke roll and others that will follow. Plus the other thing is that you'll get introduced to a sense of 6/8 or 12/8 time which in turn will give you a sense of swing real early down the track, should you want to do blues, shuffles, swing etc. I practice triplets with double kick as well, which in turn really warms you up, plus the triplet is the heart and foundation of a lot of African drumming, whether with sticks or with hand drums such as djembe, etc.

Flams are also good to practice. And if you get a good drum teacher or find a decent drum instructional video, hopefully you'll be introduced to not only the left-hand flam (L/R, L/R) but also the 'alternating flam' (L/R, R/L). Without this handy rudiment you will find it fairly frustrating to do flam taps, flam accents.....in fact nearly all of the 'family' of flam-based rudiments contain both a left-hand as well as right-hand flam. Only the flamacue is the one exception, if my memory serves me well. And if you get the handle of the alternating flam early on down the track, then it's not too long before you can be introduced to the 'alternating drag'.

So in summing up, get the following down (and make sure you master each at various tempos and dynamics then move onto the next, but also revise the previously-learned ones after you gain mastery of the next. Too many people just try to bluff their way through them at times):

Single Strokes.
Double Strokes.
Triplets.
Paradiddles.
Five Stroke Roll.
Flams (alternating if possible)
...and when you can, the Drag.

See, when you gain mastery of the singles and triplets, then the single stroke four, the single stroke seven and sextuplets can then be feasible much later on down the track. And if you put a drag in front of a single stroke four, then you get the Single Ratamacue (in turn, keep adding drags in front of the single ratamacue and you get the double ratamacue and the triple ratamacue). See that? Just with two types of strokes, singles and doubles, you'll now have six new ones to work further on. Meanwhile, with the five-stroke roll (RR LL R, LL RR L, with accents at the end), if you keep adding doubles you'll have: the seven stroke, the nine stroke, the eleven stroke and so on until you reach the seventeen stroke roll. The six stroke roll is really a five stroke roll with another eighth note added....when you master it going right hand lead (RR LL R L, the do it the other way (LL RR L R). Think of the five stroke roll as the rudiment that gives you the 'springboard' to work on and you'll eventually master no less than eight or so other rudiments, but master it before you move onto the others. And don't just restrict yourslef to rattling them around on the snare drum......place a right hand on the ride, or hi-hat, or floor tom. Have the right hand on one tom and the left hand on the other and experiment with these rolls, in fact with each and every rudiment that you learn, if you can apply it to not only one drum but the whole kit, then you are expanding on these building blocks called....the rudiments. It's as essential to practice and master them as a piano player needs to practice their scales or for you to learn your 26 letters of the the alphabet when speaking the English language. (And funny enough, before the well-known list of 40 P.A.S. Rudiments (Percussion Arts Society), N.A.R.D. (The National Association of Rudimental Drummers) in the last century used to list 26 rudiments....coincidence or what?)

Get a number of these down and before you know it, you'll be picking up all sorts of rudimental books with written pieces called 'cadences'...essentially snare charts which challenge and show you how to put all these different rudiments into cohesive 'pieces' which will display your musical knowledge and precision.

Happy practicing! Surprise yourself and others, but above all have fun practicing these things.