Rudiments
- Thread starter zhiyang86
- Start date
definitely. actually without realizing it, everything you play is a rudiment just that it's around the drumset. basically most people are playing single stroke rolls for their fill-ins. some people use double-stroke grooves, in latin/ jazz beats. Rudiments are not limited to your both hands only they can include your leg. for example you can substitute your right hand with your right foot and play a paradiddle, while playing a crochet beat with your right hand.
I believe the answer to your question will depends on how much "vocabulary" you have under your "book of rudiments" because if you are only doing single and doubles then the possibility will be very limited. You can check out this website to get more ideas about what you can use.
http://www.vicfirth.com/education/rudiments/31drag.html
Ideally, you shouldnt be thinking about rudiment when you are applying them to the music, your should thinking of comping the music. One good exercise which I often use is try COMP (complimenting) any songs your hear on the radio with just playing rudiments on your snare drums.
alvinthedrummer
New member
The best way to begin in my opinion is to start focusing on the 2 most basic rudiments, Singles and Doubles. You don't even need to be able to play them extremely fast. If you can get them down evenly, you are already half-way there. Next, fill-ins are really just playing rhythmic phrases and rhythmic phrases, in their purest form, are created by putting notes of various note values together (for a start, don't worry about dynamics yet, focus on time and cleanliness first).
Having said the above, the most obvious is to first learn to play both singles and doubles in and out of various note-values. Eg. play a bar of 8th-note singles followed by a bar of 16th-note singles. Then try to shrink the phrases to a bar eg. half bar 8th-note singles followed by half bar 16th-note singles. Then shrink them into half-bar phrases eg. One 1/4 note worth of 8th-note singles followed by 1/4 note worth of 16th-note singles. The reason is becos most spaces for fill-ins are very short and furthermore, getting proficient with many small fragments means you develop a big library of ideas which you can use to piece up a huge variety of longer phrases.
Next, do the same of doubles.
Then mix them 2 together. Eg. use the same exercises above but maybe play the 8th-notes as singles and 16th-notes as doubles etc.
Once you get strong with the 2 rudiments, it makes the next important rudiment, Single Paradiddle, easier to learn since it is really just alternating between singles and doubles. You can also apply the same exercises above with Paradiddles.
Then move on to getting flams down. Once you have these four in your pocket, the remaining 22 standard ones will become easier to tackle since they are just a combination of these four.
Hope this can kick start something for you!
All the best!
Having said the above, the most obvious is to first learn to play both singles and doubles in and out of various note-values. Eg. play a bar of 8th-note singles followed by a bar of 16th-note singles. Then try to shrink the phrases to a bar eg. half bar 8th-note singles followed by half bar 16th-note singles. Then shrink them into half-bar phrases eg. One 1/4 note worth of 8th-note singles followed by 1/4 note worth of 16th-note singles. The reason is becos most spaces for fill-ins are very short and furthermore, getting proficient with many small fragments means you develop a big library of ideas which you can use to piece up a huge variety of longer phrases.
Next, do the same of doubles.
Then mix them 2 together. Eg. use the same exercises above but maybe play the 8th-notes as singles and 16th-notes as doubles etc.
Once you get strong with the 2 rudiments, it makes the next important rudiment, Single Paradiddle, easier to learn since it is really just alternating between singles and doubles. You can also apply the same exercises above with Paradiddles.
Then move on to getting flams down. Once you have these four in your pocket, the remaining 22 standard ones will become easier to tackle since they are just a combination of these four.
Hope this can kick start something for you!
All the best!
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If you put it that way, then why not say that rudiments are all combination single strokes. e.g flam is a combination of 1 L and 1 R, while double stroke is actually 2 single. And if you master single, you can do everything else?
The reason why you need to practise all these rudiments like paradiddle ruff, ratamacue etc, is the same as why you need to learn words and vocab after you learn to spell A to Z in kindergarten.
caijunlong
New member
I think what Alvin says make a lot of sense. After you practice singles and doubles, try mixing and play them. For instance, 8th notes one bar fill in.
Play single strokes for first quarter then double strokes for second quarter. you'll get RLRR. then followed by mirroring the sticking RLRR to LRLL and play it. Then you're already playing single paradiddles. After this, you can continue to play other forms of sticking. You might be playing other rudiments or maybe permutated paradiddles etc. like what evident said, it's a build on.
I feel that you need not restrict yourself to play accordingly to rudiments. You might find yourself restricting your own flow/phrasing.
If you're playing 16th note half bar fill in, you need not fill in all the 16 notes. Having rests in between might make it sound better. Instead of playing 1ena2ena3ena4ena, you can play 1 na2 na3 na4ena(R RLR RLR RLRLRL). Sticking need not be this though. Deciding on which drums to use affect how it sounds too. Have fun experimenting!
Play single strokes for first quarter then double strokes for second quarter. you'll get RLRR. then followed by mirroring the sticking RLRR to LRLL and play it. Then you're already playing single paradiddles. After this, you can continue to play other forms of sticking. You might be playing other rudiments or maybe permutated paradiddles etc. like what evident said, it's a build on.
I feel that you need not restrict yourself to play accordingly to rudiments. You might find yourself restricting your own flow/phrasing.
If you're playing 16th note half bar fill in, you need not fill in all the 16 notes. Having rests in between might make it sound better. Instead of playing 1ena2ena3ena4ena, you can play 1 na2 na3 na4ena(R RLR RLR RLRLRL). Sticking need not be this though. Deciding on which drums to use affect how it sounds too. Have fun experimenting!
sorry say that, if you need to count R or L, that aint not rudiment. Rudiment is about singing from your heart, not counting what you already know. If you need to count, you cant improvise. That is as good as a guitarist practising his scaling.
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hey thank for the tips man...i personally only have a few rudiments in my pocket....example double, paradidle and so on but it is so diffcult to tie them down and applying them on the drums man i mean i keep playing the same old stuff and i cannot improve..... i hope can meet up with u guys out there and have some sharing session
i guess you're right...but if you can't do a double stroke properly don't think about doing smooth paradiddles. and flams are not just 2 single strokes played closely together, one hand is supposed to be played louder than the other (hence left and right flam). but anyhow, just learn your single and double strokes and everything else is just a matter of coordination...
You have to take it one steps at a time. now that you have your paradidle down. try working on alternating 5 strokes, 7 strokes and 9 strokes roll just to get yourself comfortable with the hand coordination and also your brain to familiarize how a 5 7 and 9 stroke rolls sound and this will become part of your vocab later on.
And also remember to practise your rudiment with a metronome or if you have a drum machine you can try switching the click sound to a bass drum and set your tempo at 120bpm (aka the marching tempo). You might want to go find some marching rudiment transcript to practise to the 120bpm.
alvinthedrummer
New member
Yes, I did play through all the rudiments. You don't have to but the more you learn, the bigger is your library of sticking patterns. Once you get comfortable with these patterns, you can try to mix and match them to create longer phrases.
As for the ratamacue, most student find it hard to execute properly because of the double strokes that are tagged at the beginning of each half. A good exercise will be to do lots of "RLL" and "LRR" both as triplets and as a mix of single 8th & double 16ths eg. 1ena2ena (play only the syllabuses in bold)
You should be able to execute using both moeller and french grip (combination of fingers and some wrist). Most importantly, try to learn the motions slow. The minute you try to rush it, the higher the chances of you developing a bad habit (students often end up developing the bad habit of squeezing in order to achieve short burst of fast notes. You end up choking the stick and losing projection and endurance). I would suggest starting at 50bpm. At that speed, you are forced to control each stroke and not rely entirely on gravity. After a period of disciplined practice, you start to develop stronger control over the stick. Important: Always keep all fingers on your sticks for full control over them but do NOT squeeze them.
All the best!
As for the ratamacue, most student find it hard to execute properly because of the double strokes that are tagged at the beginning of each half. A good exercise will be to do lots of "RLL" and "LRR" both as triplets and as a mix of single 8th & double 16ths eg. 1ena2ena (play only the syllabuses in bold)
You should be able to execute using both moeller and french grip (combination of fingers and some wrist). Most importantly, try to learn the motions slow. The minute you try to rush it, the higher the chances of you developing a bad habit (students often end up developing the bad habit of squeezing in order to achieve short burst of fast notes. You end up choking the stick and losing projection and endurance). I would suggest starting at 50bpm. At that speed, you are forced to control each stroke and not rely entirely on gravity. After a period of disciplined practice, you start to develop stronger control over the stick. Important: Always keep all fingers on your sticks for full control over them but do NOT squeeze them.
All the best!
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USADRUMMER
New member
**deleted**
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David Garibaldi touches on a smilar exercise for linear playing, but what he did was to play accents on all the down beat. I find this execise really useful as it helps to open up new ideas using very basic sticking patterns.
RLR RLR LLR LRR / LRL LRL RRL RLL /
hey someone mentioned that rudiments should be played by heart when learnt, does it means that it should be heard in the 'brain' or heart as ta tata tatatata instead of still counting of R RL RLRL?
i am thinking bout how to actually practice rudiments that are too fast to be counted? like those metal songs, which are insanely fast to count 1ena and stuff.
thanks for any comments! =)
i am thinking bout how to actually practice rudiments that are too fast to be counted? like those metal songs, which are insanely fast to count 1ena and stuff.
thanks for any comments! =)
there is no short cut to mastering your rudiment. You just have to go through those painstaking stick control exercises and then slowly build it up to speed.
If you dont, very soon you will be struggling to improvise in your music because your hands are unable to deliver what is in your head in time every time. before you can play fast, you must be able to play it slow.
in the context of metal drumming, I believe many of those parts and fills are pre-written, in the sense they are arranged to compliment the guitar riffs or solos.
Softwaremaker
New member
Not exactly un-related. I am a beginner myself and have spent a lot of time on the fundamentals, especially the rudiments.
I am a big fan of the rudiments but I think there is something a lot of beginner drummers, like me, also tend to miss out and that is coordination. Of course, there are more, such as sight-reading, etc.
I see many drummers great in the rudiments but their timings are not so good especially if all 4 limbs are involved. Coordination is important and I find that sometimes harder to learn (maybe thats me). Triplets on the hands, quarter/eight notes on the legs is an example.
A sign of a great musician, not just a drummer, is that all his/her limbs have a mind of their own and run their own metronome. Fantabulous !
Thoughts ?
I am a big fan of the rudiments but I think there is something a lot of beginner drummers, like me, also tend to miss out and that is coordination. Of course, there are more, such as sight-reading, etc.
I see many drummers great in the rudiments but their timings are not so good especially if all 4 limbs are involved. Coordination is important and I find that sometimes harder to learn (maybe thats me). Triplets on the hands, quarter/eight notes on the legs is an example.
A sign of a great musician, not just a drummer, is that all his/her limbs have a mind of their own and run their own metronome. Fantabulous !
Thoughts ?
Softwaremaker
New member
Totally agree, Quattro. I am not saying that rudiments are not the way to go. What I am adding is that coordination is sometimes a forgotten skill amongst drummers until they come to come complex rich jazz patterns, which requires the limbs to all work individually on their own timings.
