Despite how often I maintain that the drum rudiments aren’t really that important, they sure do live in my head rent-free. I guess as long as other drummers insist upon some tenuous importance of these things, I’m going to opine on them. Are there more important things to write about? Probably, but Todd Bishop wrote an article like this, and EMC Productions did a tier ranking, so… here we are.
I’ve rewritten the rudiments more or less as they appear on the PAS list of 40, and much like Todd, I’m evaluating them from the perspective of a drum set player (that is, what’s good for creating licks, grooves, and fills). I have spent a lot of time with other percussion disciplines, but those days are over.
I don’t have a particular reverence towards so-called “chop builders.” I’m more enamored by things that are either basic and modular or sound like a truly musical idea. I won’t give bonus points to something awkward and clunky whose only defining characteristic is being difficult.
Maybe such licks are worth practicing, but countless things fall into that category while not having the prestige of being on the rudiment list. Sure, it’s not the triple stroke roll’s fault that it’s on the list, but it is, and so my annoyance is inevitable.
Now then, let’s get started.
№ 1: Single Stroke Roll
The most basic and essential of all drumming motions. Pretty much every percussion instrument utilizes singles, although on the concert snare drum, it’s somewhat overshadowed by the buzz roll. Fast singles aren’t a conceptually interesting thing, and many drummers deride them… but it’s an important skill to me.
№ 2 & 3: Single Stroke Four, Single Stroke Seven
And just like that, we’re in the weeds now. The historicity of these things is questionable — they aren’t on NARD’s original list of 26 rudiments, and to my knowledge, they were never included in old rudiment manuals.
Many drummers would recognize these rudiments as a “four stroke ruff” and “seven stroke ruff,” which is a whole other mess I wrote about at length a few weeks ago, if you’re interested.
The name is one thing, but there’s a second problem, which is figuring out why these two licks on the list of 40 even exist. With no accents or any sense of ornamentation, I don’t understand the point of these two licks, or their development. They are just rhythms more than anything else, and I never think about them as written. Nobody truly does — everyone ends them with an accent, because that’s how we feel like they are supposed to be performed.
Maybe we actually play these as written by slipping them in around slower notes, but it’s so strange how we have two licks very similar to ones that are actually commonplace (ending with an accent), while still managing to be very different for completely inscrutable reasons. It really seems like someone took the more familiar “four stroke ruff” and took the accent away to produce something contrived that isn’t truly a part of drumming vocabulary. Worse still, they did it twice. What for?
Many have also wondered why there are only two of these. There’s some precedent for several others. Why no single three? What about five and nine? I don’t get it.
№ 4: Multiple Bounce Roll
Another essential motion… kind of. The sound of the concert snare drum is the sound of the buzz roll, but it’s a niche thing for other percussion disciplines, and the buzz roll doesn’t have a prominent place in drum corps or on the drum set.
The buzz roll’s status as a rudiment is somewhat of a modern thing — beforehand, rudimental texts only discussed the buzz roll to clarify that they should never be played in a drumline. These days, drumlines are trying to embrace it more and more, but typically as shortened buzzed strokes, so it’s more of an articulation than a sustained timbre. The drumset is a little different, but I can think of many drumming heroes who have never played a buzz roll on an album.
Buzz rolls are also a strange beast to practice, so naturally, when you do get a fleeting moment to play a dramatic, crescendoing buzz roll, it’s likely an underdeveloped skill. Many players end up using doubles instead, even though the buzz roll is a unique sound.
№ 5: Triple Stroke Roll
Behold what I consider to be the dumbest rudiment in more general terms. It’s very obviously a drum corps thing, which (hypothetically) looks cool, and that’s the only situation I see it seriously used. It looks like a basic stroke, but it’s hard to extrapolate this to other percussion disciplines.
Maybe it’s unfair to call this the dumbest rudiment, but triples annoy me because patterns of three already alternate hand-to-hand, so I don’t see the use. If you need to play patterns of threes between two drums that are physically far away from each other, then by all means, rip those trips. I just don’t know what else to get out of these.
These should help work up the speed of triplet singles, but I have never found drilling them to be useful in that regard. The traditional rudimental application is to play these close to the same speed as triplet singles anyway.
We do play (more musical) repeated triple strokes off of one hand, but you’re better off just practicing the classic double beat/triple beat drill instead of hand-to-hand triplets, which I can’t help but regard as little more than a party trick.
№ 6: Double Stroke Open Roll
Another essential. Not as much versatility as singles, but more so than buzz strokes. If the sound of the concert snare drum is the buzz roll, then the sound of a drumline is a double stroke roll.
There aren’t many situations for a drum set player to use a long double stroke roll, but learning that skill still goes a long way for short rolls and drags. The double stroke roll is also just fun to play, which is never a given when it comes to the rudiments. Just… don’t play one on the toms.
№ 7: Five Stroke Roll
I play these a lot, mixed around 16th notes — often it feels less like a drum roll, but more of an embellishment/ornamentation, like a long drag.
The way the five stroke is written on the rudiment list does not do it justice at all. It’s helpful as a way of hitting offbeat 8th notes, but otherwise, I don’t like playing the accent as an 8th note. It’s hokey.
Playing this pattern repeatedly using 16ths and 32nds will follow a dotted 8th note pulse, which can be charming, but lately I have come to conclude that dotted-8th motifs have become a bit of a plague — effective but hackneyed. I try to avoid that whenever I can.
Another interpretation is to use triplets, but I have a tough time resisting the urge to add another accent somewhere, which turns it into a six stroke roll, strictly speaking. Moreover, I only enjoy doing that for aggressive, uptempo shuffles. Anything slower than 150 and it sounds corny, and somewhat languid.
It’s always worth mentioning the tap roll, where you play the roll backward, starting with the accent. Fun for embellishing big quarter note hits, either with duple or triple rhythms.
A recurring problem we will run into is how difficult it can be to play some of these rudiments repeatedly, as in a more traditional rudimental style. Singles, doubles, and paradiddles seem to be the exception and not the rule. Playing the five stroke roll over and over as written will sound quite goofy.
№ 8: Six Stroke Roll
Here we come to the world’s most misunderstood rudiment. It’s quite rare to hear a drummer play this as written — it’s much more common to play all of the strokes as an even triplet rhythm, which is good fun… but it’s not a six stroke roll.
I actually think playing these as written is an underrated lick for denser playing — it works much better in repetition at slower tempos than the five stroke roll, while it can still be pushed close to the same max tempo. Inversions are also fun, and I’m a big fan of starting or ending with the two accents. Again, though, it feels like I’m treating it more like a drag than a roll.
№ 9: Seven Stroke Roll
Another chop for slow funk, but things are starting to get a little clunky. The tap variation seems much more common.
As these rolls get longer, tempo becomes a considerable factor to the extent that this rudiment is even playable, let alone sounds good.
There’s the somewhat antiquated 32nd-note triplet variation that I call a “NARD seven,” which is all over the place in old NARD snare solos, played on the “+” of 4 going into a downbeat. Throwing one of these in a run of triplets is a fun changeup — another “long drag,” although you’re much more likely to use 16th-note ntriplets instead of 32nds.
№ 10: Nine Stroke Roll
Playing a quarter note worth of a roll can be a powerful thing to do if you have enough space and the tempo permits. Or it can be quite cheesy. It’s dramatic, but I don’t find myself playing these in any organic fashion.
№ 11 & 12: The Ten and Eleven Stroke Roll
It’s odd how these are written with duple pulsation when they are more famously known as triplets, with the ten starting and ending with accents, and the eleven as a tap roll. The rudiment list’s desire to use one form of consistent notation for rolls does it no favors here.
I quite like the ten as written — it’s fun as a pickup, and the extra accent provides more spice for me when compared to the nine. I’m not sure if I’ve ever played the eleven as written, outside of books. I could be an interesting way to start a phrase, with that offbeat accent providing some tension. Or maybe you’re just better off phrasing the roll so that the accent lands on the beat.
Unfortunately, when using triplets for either roll, it’s hard not to invoke the famous “Three Camps” solo, which is built around triplet five, ten, and eleven stroke rolls. In triplet form, the eleven is a bit less cliché than the ten, but it’s still not a big part of my vocabulary.
№ 13 & 14: Thirteen Stroke and Fifteen Stroke Roll
These are both too much of a handful to work into regular rotation. Tempo is now even more of a problem. The thirteen is probably best served in triplet form, where it’s basically just a two-beat triplet roll. Again, a single, uniform notation style for these rolls is not helpful.
The fifteen is good for dramatic, “Moby Dick”-style solos, but not a lot else.
№ 15: Seventeen Stroke Roll
Aside from the generic open roll, this is the closest the short rolls come to sounding like proper drum rolls. If you have a two-beat crescendo and the tempo works, playing one of these can be very effective.
№ 16: Single Paradiddle
The holy grail of rudiments. We all love the paradiddle. It’s inherently useful for playing four-note patterns hand-to-hand, and orchestrating paradiddles around the kit will write fills on its own.
However, the true value of paradiddle is how easy to go in different directions with it, just by moving the accent around or using one of the inversions, before evolving into true fluidity with any combinations of singles and doubles.
№ 17: Double Paradiddle
For some reason, the value of the single paradiddle doesn’t quite carry over to the double. My typical deliberate use is when I want to fill around the toms with singles while ending on the snare, often to land a pickup. Other than that, playing the double paradiddle is subconscious, and even then, I would probably consider it just to be a “paradiddle-adjacent” lick (i.e., I play a double without realizing I played four singles in front of it).
Some drummers call this a “para-paradiddle,” but that would apparently have an accent on the first and third notes, if we’re following the onomatopoeia. Two-accent double paradiddles are interesting, but not well-known to modern drummers. Inversions don’t seem to be very common in the drumming world.
There’s a well-known gag that involves playing a double paradiddle between the cymbal and snare to create a pretty dull but effective Afro-Cuban 6/8 groove. I don’t do this because I like to convince myself I can be more creative.
№ 18: Triple Paradiddle
I don’t get these. The triple paradiddle doesn’t even feel like a rudiment. It seems like a single paradiddle with no accents that has four singles in front of it. If I ever play these, it again feels like a paradiddle-adjacent pattern instead of its own thing.
№ 19: Paradiddle–diddle
One of my favorite rudiments, and one of my favorite licks in general, even if I only play them for raw speed. Still, these just have such a unique lope to them. Inversions do exist (kind of) and can be very fun. I need to explore those more.
№ 20: Flam
Another one of the basic motions, and probably the least developed for the typical drummer. I don’t regard the flam as a lick, but rather as an articulation — a way of executing a note, much like an accent. Speaking of that…
№ 21: Flam Accent
Fun to play on a practice pad, but unless we’re including any accented flam played on a group of two singles, I don’t know where else to go with these. When played in succession, I feel the need to play something more dense, like Swiss drags. At fast tempos, some drummers might have an easier time playing the rhythm as a Swiss army triplet.
№ 22: Flam Tap
Another rudiment that’s a lot of fun to chop around with on a practice pad, but otherwise a challenge to make sound musical. As far as playing 16ths with an accented flam on every 8th note goes, the flam tap is much more graceful than muscling it out with singles.
Playing a flam on a double is a valuable skill, but otherwise, I don’t really use these in any traditional sense. Best played between two drums, perhaps with the accents falling on 16th-note offbeats. You still have to be wary of sounding like a robot. Sometimes it’s best to use one just flam, which is more of a flam five hybrid rudiment than a flam tap.
№ 23: Flamacue
There’s a very cool idea hiding in the flamacue: playing a flammed note immediately followed by an accented note. That’s the heart of this rudiment to me. But when it comes to using the phrasing that you see written above… remember what I said about sounding like a robot? I suppose a quintuplet interpretation might be worth practicing, which I have never done to great effect.
Here’s another piece of rudiment trivia: the flamacue was originally known as the flamamacue with an extra syllable, bringing the total to four. This might lead you to believe that this lick is just four notes long and doesn’t need to end with an unaccented flam. However, the flamacue has always been written as a five-note lick, so the syllable shenanigans seem to be another drumming mystery. As for why a syllable was dropped, you can thank author Gardner Strube — the same guy responsible for the “Lesson 25.”
№ 24: Flam Paradiddle
The single paradiddle is invaluable, and the flam paradiddle drains a lot of the fun out of it. The flammed variety is not nearly as versatile since the flams undermine syncopation possibilities by emphasizing the start of the pattern. They’re also literally a handful and can’t be played as fast. Not a complete waste of time, but I use them sparingly. Again.
№ 25: Single Flammed Mill
Like flam taps, these make it clear how it’s often easier to use doubles instead of singles when playing flams, but the single flammed mill is easier to use in actual playing. I used to regard the flammed mill as somewhat irrelevant, until I realized how much I would subconsciously default to these whenever I wanted to start a run of 16ths with a flam. For a while, playing a single flammed mill with the left hand was easier than playing a left-hand grace note with proper right-hand led singles. Sometimes I wonder if it still is…
These still remain a big part of my vocabulary, with a left-hand lead on the snare and the flam on a tom or the ride. I like to add a five stroke roll to the end of it, but otherwise, it’s a fun way to beef up single-stroked fills that start on the snare. The single flammed mill is also a more straightforward way to play a flammed double on a tom as you ad-lib.
№ 26: Flam Paradiddle-diddle
For whatever reason, the traditional way of playing one of these is to end with a triple stroke, so the next phrase starts on the other hand. It makes for a very clumsy lick to play. Worth using to some capacity, but keep two of these as far away from each other as possible.
Do you want to know something bizarre? The flam paradiddle-diddle is much older than the stock paradiddle-diddle. I guess paradiddle-diddles weren’t a thing people played until the mid-1900s, while the flammed variety goes back a few hundred years. It also leads you to wonder why the flam paradiddle-diddle traditionally alternates, while the unflammed variety does not.
№ 27: Pataflafla
Helpful for sambas, and not much else, unless you want to play these as triplets or something wacky like that. On paper, it’s a meaty lick that could be used to beef up 16th-note singles at a slow tempo, but in practice, it feels like another rudiment you need to use sparingly, lest you sound like a drum machine gone haywire. Or, put another way, someone who spends way too much time staring at the rudiment list, hoping for the best.
I can’t bring myself to use more than two of these back-to-back. Even just using one has the most mileage for me. I prefer the six stroke roll for this kind of accent phrasing.
№ 28: Swiss Army Triplet
A great rudiment. I’m a big fan of sweeping with the double stroke: playing two notes, on one hand, split between two different drums, e.g., a tom and the snare. The Swiss drag is also one of my favorite licks (a Swiss triplet with a drag on the second note — the same rhythm as a flam drag).
№ 29: Inverted Flam Tap
One of the hardest rudiments on the list of 40 (if not the hardest). I keep telling myself that mastering the inverted flam tap is the key to developing gnarly Steve Gadd/David Garibaldi ghost note grooves… but I haven’t gotten there yet.
It’s honestly kind of a dumb lick: these should sound the same as normal flam taps, but played with a significantly more annoying sticking that’s just there to help you show off, like the triple stroke roll. Or the flammed paradiddle-diddle. I’m noticing a theme with some of these…
So once again, you can get the most utility out of these if you split your hands between two drums/cymbals. It’s funny how many rudiments require that amount of extrapolation when they were all originally meant to be played on just one drum.
№ 30: Flam Drag
Again, one of, if not the hardest (and possibly the newest). Getting flam drags up to snuff is an important benchmark for many drummers, but I don’t care for these. I’d rather use the Swiss drag.
Here’s something that irks me: why do flam rudiments come before drag rudiments? Flams are much harder, and the flam drag introduces the drag before the actual list does, which doesn’t make sense to me.
№ 31: Drag
The final fundamental movement of drumming, and much like the flam, I consider this an embellishment more so than a lick.
Because the list of 40 uses grace notes for most of the drag rudiments, it’s tough for a lot of drummers to conceive of how to use the drag: many feel like their playing needs to have space for the grace notes, especially because it seems like most drummers default to closed or buzzed drags, as in the orchestra.
I tend to mentally picture drags as tremolo slashes on notes that are in strict time — what many modern drummers confusingly call “diddles.” (Edit: More on that here.) I wish we had separate terms for these two drag variations… but we don’t. We have terms like the aforementioned closed drag and ruff, as well as the “three stroke roll,” but naturally, the rudiment list doesn’t clear any of this up. Oh well.
№ 32: Single Drag Tap
Another way of accenting 8th-note offbeats. Pretty much everyone uses a triplet variation, though, turning the grace notes into a proper note (with a tremolo slash) and starting phrases with the accent. I like to throw tremolo-style drags in with my singles, but like the flam accent, is playing an accent followed by a drag always considered a single drag tap? Who can say…
№ 33: Double Drag Tap
If any drummer has played these on the kit, it was probably by accident. There’s a quintuplet interpretation that has become popular in the drum corps world, but as much as I enjoy patterns of five, it has never found a way into my playing.
№ 34: Lesson 25
Here we come to the 34th rudiment, with the strangest name of the bunch. Watch this video if you want to know why we call this thing the “Lesson 25.” Yet another way of accenting the 8th-note offbeat. Honestly… it’s okay. Out of all the ways to end a phrase on an 8th-note offbeat, this might be my favorite. The way it’s written looks a little convoluted, but using 32nd notes and 16ths works better than you might think.
№ 35: Single Dragadiddle
A crackpot version of the paradiddle. It’s difficult to play these without sounding like you’re doing something wrong. Still, thanks to my unabashed love for the stock paradiddle, they show up every once in a blue moon for me when I’m feeling fruity. I usually regret playing them almost immediately. Putting an accent on a drag is a bad kind of funky.
№ 36: Drag Paradiddle #1
This is basically a double paradiddle with a drag in place of the second note. I don’t consider these very often, but there’s potential.
№ 37: Drag Paradiddle #2
This is basically a triple paradiddle with a drag in place of the second and fourth notes. I don’t consider these very often because there’s no potential.
№ 38: Single Ratamacue
A lot of drummers can’t stand ratamacues, but I don’t think they’re all that bad. It can be a fun way to end a run of triplets, and my band has a tune that features this rhythm as a recurring motif, which I embellish using the single ratamacue. (I would link to the song, but it hasn’t been recorded yet since my band hasn’t been doing much of anything lately aside from making me depressed. Edit: I think it’s safe to say it will never be recorded.)
№ 39 & 40: Double Ratamacue, Triple Ratamacue
…Okay, I’ll admit, these don’t need to exist.
