Rock Drumming System
PRG

How To Play The Essential Drum Rudiments

Drum Rudiments are the most important aspect to drumming. They are the fundamentals to all percussion, and should not be ignored. A drummer should know all of the key drum rudiments, and be able to perform them without hesitation. Without the practice of these, you are limiting your skills and possibility as a drummer.Let’s break this down a bit, and look at why drum rudiments are so important to practice.

What Is A Drum Rudiment?

Drum rudiments are basic drum patterns, used as practice exercises. They are basically the foundation of drumming, or the basics of stick control, and wrist movement. There are many different rudiments out there. You may hear some people talking about the 40 essential drum rudiments. This may seem like a lot however, most of these are just variations of each other. Drum rudiments should be practiced on a practice pad or a snare drum. They simply help train your fingers and wrists with speed, power, control, as well as independence.

Why Are Drum Rudiments Important?

Practicing your drum rudiments as a drummer is a lot like going to the gym as a professional athlete. A hockey player must train his muscles to be able to skate faster, shoot harder, and hit harder. The same is for a drummer – we must train our muscles to hit harder, more accurate, and faster. This is where drum rudiments come into play. They force us to do nothing else but practice stick movement. A lot of times drummers will get side tracked on a drum kit and lose out on valuable practice time. Going through the basic exercises will drastically improve your skills on the drum set; allowing you to roll a lot faster, and giving you more options on the drum set.

Pros and Cons of Practicing Rudiments

To be honest, there are not a lot of cons to practicing these drum rudiments. As a drummer, you should be practicing these drum rudiments more often then you practice on a drum set. You can never go wrong by practicing your essential drum rudiments. The good thing about these is it will force you to go back to the core of drumming. Like I mentioned before, it is easy to get distracted with the drums in front of you, but when you are using a practice pad working on your rudiments, you do not have that option. However, that could also be a problem. Some may get used to the practice pad, and find it hard to transfer back to the drum set. Another problem with rudimental practice is it does not work on creativity, and independence on the drum set. Being limited to a single pad, you are unable to hear the different drum voices, thus hindering your creative edge.

The 40 Essential Drum Rudiments

Like I have said before, there are many different drum rudiments to practice. In fact there are 40 rudiments in total. These can be all broken down five main categories: Single Stroke Rudiments, Double Stroke Rudiments, Diddle Rudiments, Flam Rudiments, and Drag Rudiments. Here is a list of all 40 rudiments. Remember to practice these rudiments with your brushes as well as sticks.

1. Single Stroke Rudiments

2. Double Stroke Rudiments

3. Diddle Rudiments

4. Flam Rudiments

  • Flam Stroke
  • Flam Accent
  • Flam Tap
  • Flamacue
  • Flam Paradiddle
  • Single Flammed Mill
  • Flam Paradiddle-Diddle
  • PataFlaFla
  • Swiss Army Triplet
  • Inverted Flam Tap
  • Flam Drag

5. Drag Rudiments

  • Drag
  • Single Drag Tap
  • Double Drag Tap
  • Single Dragadiggle
  • Drag Paradiddle #1
  • Drag Paradiddle #2
  • Lesson 25
  • Single Ratamacue
  • Double Ratamacue
  • Triple Ratamacue

Other Rudiments

Taking the time to practice all 40 essential drum rudiments is very important for drummers.   Using a practice pad is a great way to keep your drumming quiet, and portable.   To keep on top of your game, you must train regularly.  All drum rudiments can be applied to the sticks, as well as the feet. Remember, use proper stick technique, and make sure that you tune your drums before applying it to your drum kit. It is also recommended that you attend drum tuition and master classes from qualified instructors as much as possible.

Click here if you are looking for a video training tool to help you learn your drum rudiments. Check out Drum Rudiment System for more information on this concept. There is also another website with similar content here!

By: Dave Atkinson

Related content you may also be interested in...

Learn How To Play A Single Stroke Roll - One of the most essential rudiments drummers must know, is the single stroke roll. It is what most beats, fills, and solo’s are constructed from. Every drummer must master the Single Stroke Roll.

Learn How To Play A Double Stroke Roll - Another very essential rudiment. The double stroke roll is a little more tricky to master than the single stroke. This is something every drummer must master, as it wil build key muscles for independence.

Learn How To Play A Single Paradiddle - A Very popular and essential rudiment. This pattern will teach you stick independence. It is a little more advanced then the Single stroke roll, and the double stroke roll. Try this in different beats and fills!

Learn How To Play The Flam Stroke - The flam is a very popular rudiment, played by most to add character, and personally to a beat. Very important to practice if you want to work on stick control!

Learn How To Play The Drums - Do you want to learn how to play the drums? Think it may be too difficult or require a lot of coordination? I've got great news for you! The truth of the matter is - if you can count to four, you can play the drums!

Learn How To Play A Drum Solo - Soloing is the number one way for drummers to express themselves. Every drummer wants to be able to wow the audience with a fat drum solo. But do you really now how to build a proper solo?

Other websites that include related content...

The Amazing One Handed Roll - Shock your frends with this amazing technique. Start wining drum battles, start spicing up your solo's and start drumming with style.

Learn the Moeller Method - The Moeller Method is a super popular technique that every professional drummer knows. This page explains it in full detail!

Learn the Drums - This drum web site will teach you many drum tips, beats, and lessons. Everything is free on this web site, so have fun!

Learn Jazz Drums - Apply your rudiment studies to a totally different style of drumming with this free web site. Have Fun!