How do you practice your rudiments

Larry

Larry

"Uncle Larry"
Looking for ideas other than my own. Like, do you practice just one rudiment per session, or do you go through all/some of them? How long do you stay on just one rudiment? Do you practice the same rudiment at different tempos in the same session? Do you play rudiments along to recordings? Do you practice your rudiments on just the snare or do you orchestrate them around the set...stuff like that. Not limited to the above at all.

Please feel free to share your approach angle in as much detail as you wish.

I'll start. I consider myself a rudiment beginner. When I do dedicate time to just rudiments, which comes in fits and starts, I usually just work on one per session, with little unintended sidetracks into related stuff along the way.

Time spent varies widely according to how much time, and the mood I'm in. I try to spend as much uninterrupted time on one rudiment as I can, which usually is anywhere between 5 minutes to an hour. I do practice rudiments at different tempos in the same sessions. I start slow and shift tempos as I get comfortable with them that day. Never did them to music, I stopped playing along to recordings in my studio years ago. I just do them mainly on the snare for now, hence why I feel like a beginner with them.
 
These days I practice etudes. I think that's way more productive, but if I come across a bar I struggle with I'll offcourse isolate and work on that separately if needed.

I've been using and still use Charley Wilcoxon's All American drummer as well as Wrist and Finger Stroke Control.

This week I've also been working on a couple of pieces in John S. Pratt's 14 Modern Contest Solos for Snare Drum. I have a ton of books like that, but haven't even cracked many of them until now.

So, in many ways I don't really isolate rudiments mindlesly on the pad anymore except for my Saturday morning practice session which is more chops oriented and involves a bunch of typical stickings with all sorts of accents, double, single doubles and flams. Basically the instruction part of the Unreel Drum Book


I also recently picked up the paradiddle and diddle exercises from Emanuelle Capplette, probably typical drum corps stuff she grew up with, that I just liked.

I'll do the traditional slow to fast with singles and doubles thing,

I do end up doing a lot of typical stuff and also the Lifetime Warm-up simply because I use it when I teach. It is a well thought out warm-up, just not part of my own routine, really.

I do also isolate the Chaffee compound stickings which in essence are paradiddles and evened out rolls. I do generally feel that e.g. the evened out 5A sticking works my hands better than pushing a 5-stroke roll which to me really is simply a group of three with an accent and doubles.

I used to do the Dawson Rudiment Ritual and I'm sort of getting back into that now with brushes. Going through that whole thing is great as it involves more concentration and emulates the need for good quality in context over time

Offcourse, with things such as the ritual, well thought out as it may well be, it is yours to modify and add on to if you like and I do warm up with such things over a foot ostinato every day. And yes, then I do orchestrate on the kit.

With students I do follow the Lifetime Warm-up way. Very few have ever been past the beginner level. I tend to leave it at that and work on application and a few extra exercises to improve the quality of those few rudiments, like e.g. those Capplette things. Then I give them the first page og AAD and some wimple similar etudes or work through reading pages with
rolls and accents in either triplets or 16ths.

Everyone has different needs, and although I don't mind giving predominantly technical work for those so inclined, very few are and for that paradiddle to be of any real use it has to be worked on in a musical context.


I like using msic instead of a metronome. It depends. Today I played Wilcoxon along to some Sun Rai clips on youtube.

If you are trying to get into a certain style of music, why not use that as a base for all that you do and work on your technique also with that feel.


Conditioning work for me is the first page of Stick Control, or close, to me and I don't complicate that. Everything else I do is done deliberately in as musical a way as possible.
 
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I also like playing solos. Mostly Wilcoxon and Pratt, and sometimes pieces from the Cirone book. I get a lot more from playing rudiments this way, than playing drills, although sections I can't play well, I do loop over and over.

I try to play on a snare vs a pad as much as possible, working on dynamics and starting very slowly at first.
 
I don't have a strict practice routine. I find rudiments boring and prefer to play songs.
 
I find it boring to practice without music. I practice rudiments on the drum set and while listening to music.

I put a list of rudiments in front of me. I put on my favorite radio station. The first song is played all the way through using the first rudiment.
I start the rudiment on the snare drum. Then I move around the drum kit still playing only the rudiment for the whole song.
I also play along with both feet, bass drum and hi hat.
Second song is played using only the second rudiment. And so on until I go through the whole list of rudiments.
As you might guess sometimes I get a very strange combination of rudiment and song.

This routine helps me learn and utilize the rudiments in my playing and in my solos. Try it, you'll like it.

.
 
It depends really, I'll warm up always with rudiments at home, spending time on matched and traditional grips.

Mostly I'd say Stick Control or more recent, excercises in the Alan Dawson/John Ramsay book, or just using variations of a bit of everything if I fancy just playing around.

Spend time on two pads, one an evans real feel and then my uncles pad from the 1960's which has a low Response. Mostly just on the snare but also paying round the kit sometimes.

Will throw in the metronome sometimes and increase the speed. Will go from set rudiments to a some freestyling and then back again.

I don't really have a set routine I guess, whatever I feel like I need to concentrate on and improve.
 
I probably shouldn't do this, but I practice them at a kit and "in time" when I can. I start a click, and often I'll play a bar or two of regular rock time, and then make up a fill around the kit using whatever rudiment I'm practicing. This is immensely fun when you're doing simple stuff like doubles, paradids, trips, ruffs, etc.

My teachers always told me to do them at a pad, and pay close attention to stick heights, the evenness of sound, and my hand technique/position. I really only do that when I don't have a kit and I'm messing about on a pad.
 
Dr_Watso said:
I probably shouldn't do this, but I practice them at a kit and "in time" when I can. I start a click, and often I'll play a bar or two of regular rock time, and then make up a fill around the kit using whatever rudiment I'm practicing. This is immensely fun when you're doing simple stuff like doubles, paradids, trips, ruffs, etc.

My teachers always told me to do them at a pad, and pay close attention to stick heights, the evenness of sound, and my hand technique/position. I really only do that when I don't have a kit and I'm messing about on a pad.
Click to expand...

lol

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I've just got the new Steve Smith book/DVD.

He goes through paradiddles, double paradiddles, paradiddlediddles etc, putting accents in very different places. Which is new territory (for me anyway).

I've been practising them on the snare, then incorporating them on the kit - using toms, crashes with bass drum underneath, choked hi-hat with bass drum underneath on those accents.

Starting at slow tempo (sometimes very slow!) and getting faster - with a click, and without.

Some very cool stuff and possibilities for fills and solos - and, of course, grooves.

He also goes through four different versions of the paradiddle, which again I've tried to apply to the kit.

I realised there's just a huge amount of untapped information (again, for me anyway) in just a few rudiments.

So, for me I suppose, the aim is always using rudiments to do more around the drums.
 
Hi, I'm pretty much the same as Hollywood Jim. Except I use my "Shuffle" with music on my iPhone. I work on one rudiment at a time, currently paradiddle and have been doing this a few times a week for a few weeks now. I practice for about 1- 2 hours at a session. Like HJ I find it really enjoyable and easier to motivate myself to do rather than just practicing without music, which I did initially after coming back to drumming.
Cheers
 
larryace said:
Looking for ideas other than my own. Like, do you practice just one rudiment per session, or do you go through all/some of them? How long do you stay on just one rudiment? Do you practice the same rudiment at different tempos in the same session? Do you play rudiments along to recordings? Do you practice your rudiments on just the snare or do you orchestrate them around the set...stuff like that. Not limited to the above at all.

Please feel free to share your approach angle in as much detail as you wish.
Click to expand...

The following sums up my practice of rudiments lately:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HsMyqg_zSeo

Grab a beer before you watch.
 
So far I like Watso's and Hollywood's ideas.

They sound like fun fun fun!

Supermac's is good down the road, not ready for that yet.

What's an etude?
 
larryace said:
What's an etude?
Click to expand...

A piece of music made specifically to work on a technical aspect of playing an instrument.

Offcourse, these snare drum solos in Pratt are actual performance pieces, but those short AAD pieces are pretty specific and are made to tie specific rudiments together. Wrist and Finger Control is a collection of 4 bar exercises organized in groups of 10 exercises pr. concept. Cirone's Portraits in Rhythm is another classic, but probably the last one I'd look into. It's just musical practice and playing rudiments like this is way more demanding than repeating them in isolation. Play a thousand drags and I'm sure most of them will be great once dialed in, but in a piece there's only one chance in an ever changing musical context.

There's a middle ground to technical work IMO, with the very different types of students I meet, and the last month I've been experimenting with something that could be a fun book to help cross over with more ease.


I definetly use my snare as much as possible, but since I got my Aquarian Super-Pad a couple of weeks ago and now put it on top the ol' 4160, practicing snare stuff at home feels much better. I just turn the snares off for silence and pure conditioning work and when I turn them on it's not too loud or annoying. It's really dry by nature, so you really hear everything cleanly.
 
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I tend to be a real "bookworm" when it comes to this stuff. Two books that I like are:

1) "Dr. Throwdown's Rudimental Remedies" by John Wooton. This book is designed to be played on a pad/snare drum. So it is not a drum set book. It is, however, organized really well. It also comes with an associated dvd (what doesn't these days???) On the dvd are videos where Wooton demonstrates a lot of the rudiments along with practice/playing suggestions. Also on the dvd are mp3 files with tracks written in various musical styles. So you can practice rudiments in a much more musical manner on the pad.

2) For drum set playing I use an old "evergreen": "Rudimental Patterns for the Modern Drummer" by Joe Cusatis. While the book only covers 12 rudiments (3, 4, 5, 7, and 9 stroke ruffs (for single strokes), 5, 7, and 9 stroke rolls (for double strokes), flams, and single, double, and triple paradiddles), there are some excellent patterns written out that give ideas about moving around the kit. It doesn't give any of the Steve Gadd-type hand/foot patterns, but with a little inventiveness they can be worked in. Following along with Dr. Watso's and Hollywood Jim's excellent advise, you can play along to the music of your choice, and work these in. As with anything out of a book, some of the written-out patterns are better than others...but the book is still a great starting out point for both using "established" patterns as well as coming up with your own.

Hopefully, John W. will add to this post. I bet he would have some really excellent ideas.
 
I practice all the singles, doubles, diddles, and flam rudiments slow, medium, and fast - with a metronome and without.

The only thing I do that I don't think anyone else has mentioned - is that I practice them at the drum set - and most importantly, I keep time, hi hat foot on 2 and 4 - while practicing all of them. I will start on the snare and do that for half hour or so - and then movemy hands around the kit.
I will also then practice the rudiments in different time signatures.

I also work out rudiments on a practice pad by itself - but I get them most benefit from playing time with my left foot and really trying to make the rudiments groove on the kit, even if just playing the snare.
 
I've been working through the lessons one per week leading up to learning Alan Dawson's Rudimental Ritual. That's a fun goal for me.
 
evilg99 said:
The only thing I do that I don't think anyone else has mentioned - is that I practice them at the drum set - and most importantly, I keep time, hi hat foot on 2 and 4...
Click to expand...

I do this too! I played snare solos for a long time, with just a snare set up, but now I play behind the kit so I can keep time with my left foot. I play either 1/4 note down beats or upbeats for the 2/4 and 4/4 solos. I also continue the 1/4 note ostinato, when I’m playing 6/8 solos too - this way I can weave in and out of 2/4 and 6/8 solos while maintaining the same tempo and pulse with my hi hat foot...
 
There's a growing body of evidence that it's better to practice something (anything, not just drums) for a little while, then move on to something else, rather than just spend an entire practice session on a single thing.

I like to use Tommy Igoe's Great Hands For A Lifetime Warmup. It hits on a bunch of rudiments and the way it moves from one to another is logical and musical. I recommend it.
 
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