Rudiments
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Rudimental Symposium — Scottish Pipe Band Rudiments
Basically the rudiments used in Pipe Band drumming are the same as the American 26, with a few very interesting variations.
1,000 Ways to Practice a Single Page - Part 5: Challenging Rudimental Approaches
The longer I play the drums, the more I appreciate and value the time I can spend on only a snare or pad. Let’s dive into a few concepts to improve our overall technique. Here’s the rhythm we’ll be interpreting…
Concepts - Rudiments: For or Against?
Talking to drummers about the rudiments is much like talking to the average person about politics.
The Collapsing Concept - Crushing Roll Rudiments to Create Contemporary Swing and Solo Ideas
The late, great author and educator Jim Chapin gave me this exercise in a lesson a number of years ago. It deals with the seven-stroke roll and Jim’s concept of collapsing the rudiment to create a six-note grouping. In our…
Pataflafla Builder - Exercises for Developing a Challenging Yet Musical Rudiment
One of the most beneficial of the forty PAS rudiments is the pataflafla. It’s one of the few where each hand plays a totally different part. The leading hand uses what I call the Moeller whip-and-stop technique, and the secondary…
The Flexible Five - Exploring the Five-Stroke Roll on the Drumset
Rock ‘N’ Jazz Clinic The Flexible Five Exploring the Five-Stroke Roll on the Drumset by Mike Johnston One of the most common questions I get from students is about applying rudiments on the kit. They want to know how to…
BASICS - Five-Stroke Glue
The world’s greatest drummers have often laid the foundation of their grooves and fills with the five-stroke roll. It can act as a connective tissue that binds musical ideas together. Think about Steve Gadd’s hypnotic marching rhythms, Carter Beauford’s slick…
Quintuplets, Part 1: The Basics
Some may think of quintuplets—groups of five notes in the space of a quarter note—as an unusual rhythm reserved for the technical folks playing math music. But quintuplets aren’t that different from triplets (which weren’t always commonplace), and it’s possible…
Swiss Rudiments - Basel Drumming, Part 4
In this lesson we’ll take a look at a song from Camp Duty Update, my most recent book about the history of rudiments and their European roots. The melody of the tune “The Slow Scotch” was used in nineteenth-century military…
