How do you practice your rudiments

8Mile said:
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.
Click to expand...

+1,000. Can't recomended it highly enough.
 
What I like to do is get a groove going on and practice fills and get back into the groove. It helps with rudiments used in the fill, getting back in time with the groove, you start to feel it and it creates interesting fills and you never know where it will take you.

https://youtu.be/t5apceTeQ4I
 
I alternate limbs. I'll play it with the right hand leading, then left hand leading, then mix up the limbs... Left foot with right hand, left foot with right foot, and just cycle through every combination of limbs I can for each rudiment.
 
I'm a newbie (under one year) and learn my rudiments on the pad, have a short practice daily on the pad to make sure I am controlling the sticks/keeping time, and then go to the kit to put the rudiments to work in a musical way - standard beat, fills with rudiments. Currently, I am working to make the single stroke roll, double stroke roll, and paradiddle smoother on the kit. Same with the inverted double stroke roll, 5 stroke roll, and 4 stroke roll, but not quite there. Later today, I am adding the flam and drag to the pad. And always with a metronome and a written plan.
 
I play out of Haskell Harr-- book 2-- and to a lesser extent Wilcoxon's Rudimental Swing Solos. Harr is more traditional, not as hip, but my hands end up feeling more conditioned after playing a lot of his stuff, for some reason. Also Mitch Peters's Odd Meter Rudimental Etudes.
 
Currently
Singles and doubles on a pad
Singles around the kit on different subdivisions
Doubles on the snare, Art Blakey style rolls
Rudimental Ritual with 3-2 clave on HH, quarter note at 200. Been working on this since last summer, I'm about halfway thru, at the Swiss Army Triplets.

That's about it, I've worked extensively out of Wilcoxon's book and I love it. I've also used a bit of Portraits and other snare etudes. I made flashcards with the names of the rudiments on the front and the stickings on the back and would pick cards at random, that's how I memorized most of them.
 
I love the Wilcoxon Rudimental Swing Solos book. I've been working over Flam Accent Fantasy at the moment. Since I started working with Wally Schnalle he's introduced me to etudes which are wonderful technical exercises with a melodic motif.

For whatever reason I really favor six stroke phrased rudiments, double paradiddles, paradidddle-diddles and the awesome six stroke roll. I also love all the paradiddle inversions and throwing them all around the kit.

Wally has introduced me to all sort of subdivision trees which really get the brain going.
 
Also, using Synchopation exercises 1-8 in many many different ways. Playing them between the snare and bass drum with hats on 2&4 and quarter note ride and on and on to a metronome. Very helpful with coordination.
 
Last edited:
cornelius said:
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...
Click to expand...

I'm going to start doing this!
 
SpareRib said:
I love the Wilcoxon Rudimental Swing Solos book. I've been working over Flam Accent Fantasy at the moment. Since I started working with Wally Schnalle he's introduced me to etudes which are wonderful technical exercises with a melodic motif.

For whatever reason I really favor six stroke phrased rudiments, double paradiddles, paradidddle-diddles and the awesome six stroke roll. I also love all the paradiddle inversions and throwing them all around the kit.

Wally has introduced me to all sort of subdivision trees which really get the brain going.
Click to expand...

Would you recommend the Wilcox book to a newbie? I see in the title "for the Advanced Drummer".
 
southpawgrandma said:
Would you recommend the Wilcox book to a newbie? I see in the title "for the Advanced Drummer".
Click to expand...


You could probably play #1 in AAD.

It depends on how newbie. You should have your basic rudiments and reading skills together before attempting this, but that's all. You just start them slowly.

Go through a beginner snare drum series first.

That said, I always put a copy on the first page in my young students folders, but that's my own little experiment. lol I just hint they can try themselves, forget the flams and accents for now and just start getting the rhythms and stickings right.

One of many tricks to get the lazy Norwegian music school kids into a normal self driven mode.
 
I was off the kit for awhile so I worked on a pad. Today im trying to use the 5 stroke and 6 stroke rolls on the kit.
 
larryace said:
Please feel free to share your approach angle in as much detail as you wish.
Click to expand...

Nowadays, I only practice singles, doubles, paradiddles, double-paradiddles and triplets, I would typically play all of them simultaneously, paying attention to the evenness of the sticking patterns and incorporating various accents, I do this on the pad or on the snare drum.
 
Odd-Arne Oseberg said:
You could probably play #1 in AAD.

It depends on how newbie. You should have your basic rudiments and reading skills together before attempting this, but that's all. You just start them slowly.

Go through a beginner snare drum series first.

That said, I always put a copy on the first page in my young students folders, but that's my own little experiment. lol I just hint they can try themselves, forget the flams and accents for now and just start getting the rhythms and stickings right.

One of many tricks to get the lazy Norwegian music school kids into a normal self driven mode.
Click to expand...

Think I will hold off for now. My time will be better spent learning and improving the rudiments I'm working on. don't want to spread my focus too much.
 
larryace said:
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?
Click to expand...

I think I should have kept my mouth shut. What I do is not the right way to practice rudiments. The way my teacher told me to is the right way. I'm basically just using them as sticking arrangements around the kit, and in the process, throwing out what they really should be doing for you.

Rudiments should be played in time, with strict attention to perfect form and even-ness of sound for all non-accented notes. Just making up fills like I do is fun, but does kinda negate the purpose of doing these.
 
Dr_Watso said:
I think I should have kept my mouth shut. What I do is not the right way to practice rudiments. The way my teacher told me to is the right way. I'm basically just using them as sticking arrangements around the kit, and in the process, throwing out what they really should be doing for you.

Rudiments should be played in time, with strict attention to perfect form and even-ness of sound for all non-accented notes. Just making up fills like I do is fun, but does kinda negate the purpose of doing these.
Click to expand...

You are correct. But the question was how do you PRACTICE your rudiments.
I think after you learn them you can practice them as you and I do on the drum set.
What I mean by "learn" is; know how to play them at a slow even pace.
Yes, some time should be spent in the beginning on a drum pad learning how to play the rudiments.


.
 
Hollywood Jim said:
You are correct. But the question was how do you PRACTICE your rudiments.
I think after you learn them you can practice them as you and I do on the drum set.
What I mean by "learn" is; know how to play them at a slow even pace.
Yes, some time should be spent in the beginning on a drum pad learning how to play the rudiments.


.
Click to expand...

Yea, I hear you, but my teacher also said something else I try to remember.

Bad practice makes bad habits.

In other words, it's not just about learning them. It's about constantly working on and improving them, and doing it totally correctly. They are an all-in-one thing that helps improve consistency, sound, and ambidexterity. In the end, your hands have this almost "automatic" ability to whip out these sticking combos at will to do what it is you need around the kit. Unless you're playing a rudimental solo or snare drum music which is meant to highlight all the things we're talking about, rudiments aren't meant to be directly applied to music as rudiments. You're not supposed to be thinking "I'm going to lay down a slick para-diddle fill on the next bar" while playing music.

All this is terribly confusing to the thread, and I'm certainly no authority, but I don't want people to mis-interpret what I'm saying. Yes, it is fun to make up rudiment fills on the fly, but I want to stress that it is not going to improve your rudiments or make you play them right. The only way to actually improve them and therefor get the most use out of them later is to really focus on them alone and use good form, technique and go for even sound from both hands. I was taught that if I record a double stroke roll, it should sound like a single stroke roll... That's the type of even-ness we want to go for.

I've watched some guys play gigs before and it was just absolutely painful how obvious it was that they were playing rudiments specifically to play rudiments. They aren't really listening to the music, they're looking for places to put 5-stroke rolls. Avoid this type of thought at all costs.
 
Lately I've been throwing a cloth on my snare and playing basic rudiments at slow tempos, then pushing the tempo up and repeating. I've been doing this for the sake of developing finger control and also French grip.

As for orchestrating the more complex rudiments, that comes out more when I'm soloing. The standard paradiddle isn't as nice as the inverted ones IMO. I use 6 stroke rolls a bit too.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top