Some Drumming Basics

Not long ago I started a challenge for some of my students called the “Rudiment Champion”.  Basically, it’s a list of rudiments and drumming concepts, each played for one minute continuously to prove you have consistency and endurance.  It’s actually pretty hard to do.

I sequenced rudiments/concepts in a logical developmental order, drawing on ideas from, among other things, Bill Bachman’s new book, Stick Technique, which everyone should own a copy of.  I grouped forty different things into four levels, ten per level.  After many iterations I landed on something I thought was pretty good.

My assumption was that most people would quit after Level 1, because it’s pretty hard, time-consuming, and gets you into territory that is less and less applicable outside of marching.  The challenge, therefore, was to pack Level 1 full of the most fundamentally valuable stuff I could.

Here’s the Level 1 list:

1. Long Roll
2. 5-Stroke Roll
3. 9-Stroke Roll
4. 7-Stroke Roll (16th Base)
5. 7-Stroke Roll (Triplet Base)
6. Paradiddle
7. Paradiddle-Diddle
8. Tap-Accent no. 1 (Based on Flam-Accent no. 1)
9. Tap-Drags
10. Inverted Paradiddles (RLLR LRRL)

Upon reflection, I had to laugh at myself for starting with rolls, because so much time in my college rep classes was spent mocking early drum books for demanding that the open roll be mastered before introducing the quarter note.  I TOTALLY GET IT NOW.  The above list has no written component.  This is drumming as a spoken (played) language.  You get it by DOING it, preferably with others around you who already do it better than you do.  Reading and academically understanding notes is all well and good, but in the end, it’s about pronunciation and execution, and that cannot be learned without hours of repetition, trial, error, and correction.

After some time spent teaching this, I organized the basic concepts on tone production, sticking coordination, and mental focus into three pages, designed to get you through Level 1.  Here they are.

Rudimental Roll Builders

Tone Production and Stroke Types

Alternating Tap-Accent, Paradiddles, and Drags

There are a few exercises on here very minimally adapted from Bachman’s book and named after him.  Everyone should buy his book and get the full scope of what he’s doing, as it is incredible and what I have here is not representative.

In the past few years, my philosophy has become more inclusive, putting marching and concert ideas together in the same space.  These sheets reflect that, and allow me to focus not only on the mechanics of how to get up and down between notes, but also the tone produced on every note.  Indeed, mechanics and tone production inform and affect each other cyclically.

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I’m by no means the only person doing this, and I’m always on the lookout for similar resources from people working and developing their ideas.  If you know of any, please share in the comments!