Drum Kit Rudiments

There are 40 rudiments that anyone could practise anywhere with their hands, feet or a combination of both.

Rudiments are the building blocks of drumming, a foundation on which we build our grooves and drum fills as we advance.

The Single Paradiddle is one of the most common rudiments to practise as it contains both single and double strokes. You could start off by playing a simple rudiment such as a single stroke roll or single paradiddle, then make it more complicated by adding the bass drum.

Muscle memory, Over time, will make it easier to increase the speed of rudiments around the drum kit and you can substitute some beats with the bass drum.

You don't have to practise all of the rudiments to be a great drummer as you can make rudiments sound really good by mixing them in a fill. After a few months of practising rudiments you should be able to do play some complicated stickings using the whole kit sometimes not thinking about what you are doing that much, again due to muscle memory.

You may want to start to practise a rudiment on the snare drum first before practising around the drum kit because it will be easier as only one sound source will be heard.

To make it simpler and easier to practise try using a metronome so you can keep the same exercise going at various tempos, it will also help you keep the timing exactly right and solidify your internal body clock. You can buy metronomes from between ?5 and ?100's from all good drum stores.

Drum books often have the rudiments in them to work from as a reference, the official rudiments can also be download from the percussive arts society website and other drum related websites such as the vic firth (drum stick manufacturer) website.

Rudiments should be practiced not only at various tempos but in many different ways such as on a practice pad and on the drum kit, when on the kit it would be a great idea to play the hi hat with the foot on the quarter note or 'on the pulse'.

Playing a specific sub-division to start with i.e. sixteenth notes and then changing sub-division to triplets, quintuplets, septuplets, demi semi quavers etc to get used to dividing the pulse into various amounts of notes and gaining the feel for playing as many rudiments through these sub-divisions as possible.