Single/Double Drag - Interpretation

[Trommler]

I'm working more in the Wilcoxon book (All American Drummer) at the moment and I was wondering how to interpret the single/double drag (Solo 19 for example). I did a bit of research and I found that there are different opinions on how to execute drag rudiments.

1. The drags are played in the context of the phrase in which they are placed and by convention are played twice the speed as the context (found that on wiki but does that make sense?). The drags are played with a definite time signature. In this interpretation the drags are rolling along with the rhythm and making it sound more fluid.

2. in the single drag (or the second drag in the double drag) the phrase is interpreted with a triplet feel (see picture). I think this interpretation is rare but sounds quite interesting. It might be derived from the Swiss Drumming (Basel drumming) which has a lot of those phrases that are not exactly pushing the rhythm.

3.the drags are played as grace notes, kind of like a doubled flam, with no real time signature. In dong this the main note sound broader than a single stroke. The whole phrase sound a bit chopped up.

How would you play drag rudiments? Is there a favourite way or even convention of how to play them in American rudimental drumming? Any ideas on that matter are greatly appreciated.

Cheers

[Wavelength]

I would play ruffs within a phrase exactly as in the first variation, with a specific time value: if the drag is among sixteenth notes, the ruff is interpreted as 32nd notes, and if the ruff is among sixteenth triplets, the ruff is interpreted as 32nd triplets. When a ruff appears before a single note -- say, quarter notes, half notes or other sparse time values -- I'd play it as two grace notes close to the primary note.

[Riverr1]

Trommeler,

Ruff's and drag's can be a nightmare unless you're playing by yourself. The rudiments are standardized except for the ruff and drag. Do a google search, check 5 different sources and you'll get from 3 to 5 diffrent answers about what a ruff and drag are.

This first example is how I learned the ruff's and drag's:


I didn't know it at the time I was learning the rudiments, but the above isn't from NARD. The organization the defined the original rudiments in the US.

This is NARD:

http://nard.us.com/N.A.R.D._Rudiment...3Essential.pdf

There are many more nterpetations then these 2. You really need to decide for yourself what you are going to consider to be "standard" for your own playing an then move forward from there.

All 40 Official Drum Rudiments

[BadabingSAC]

I always play them as grace notes. That's just the way we do it in school.

In my opinion, the only time you should play them "open" or as 32nd notes is when they are notated as such.

[Doc_d]

I've watched a number of demonstrations on youtube. I've seen some people play the drag very slow when the tempo of the piece they are playing is very slow. So the grace notes are two very distinct notes and the time they are played in is related to the over all tempo of the piece. I've also seen some people always play the grace notes as a closed (almost a buzz) two stroke roll regardless of how fast of slow the temp of the piece is at.

My teacher subscribes to the second method. So even if you are playing whole notes at 40 BPM it sounds like braaaap. Where as in the first method it would just sound like it would be 3 very distinct strokes when playing whole notes at 40 BPM.