Rudiments Around the Drums: Part 2

Not For Marching Only!

Although it's great to practice the Drum Rudiments on the Snare or practice pad, applying them to a Drum Set gives you far more options to expand your creativity, while coming up with some great sounding rhythms.

In the first of this multi-part series, I gave you some ideas for adapting the Single Stroke Roll, Double Stroke Roll, and Single Paradiddle to the Drum Set (See the Related Links sidebar if you missed that lesson). In this segment, I offer some ideas on how to play 3 more of the basic Drum Rudiments around the entire set.

Double Paradiddle
Last time, we covered the Single Paradiddle. Here are some of the ways you can adapt the Double Paradiddle to the Drum Set. Note in the example below that the Double Paradiddle sticking pattern works out evenly every 3 bars. In order to create a standard 4-bar phrase, you have to add an extra 4 sixteenth-notes to the pattern.

Flam
A Flam is made by a combination of a Grace note and a Primary note (quarter-note, eighth-note, etc...). Flams are always named based upon the Primary note. For example, the first Flam on the first beat of the first bar in the exercise below is called a Right Hand Flam. The Flam on the second beat is a Left Hand Flam, and so on.

There are two types of Flams: Standard Flams and Flat Flams. Standard Flams are played by striking the Grace note slightly before the primary note, which produces 2 distinct taps that are played close together. The first tap is soft and the second is loud. This is accomplished by holding the stick that is to play the Grace note close to the Drumhead, while holding the Primary note stick 8 to 12 inches from the Drumhead.

Flat Flams, although not part of the 26 (or 40) Standard Rudiments, are widely used on the Drum Set. Often written the same way as Standard Flams, Flat Flams are played by striking both sticks at the same time, at the same volume, and having each stick hit a different Drum. For example, the Right Stick might hit the Snare while the Left Stick hits the Floor Tom.

You should practice the exercises below (and any Flam exercises) using both the Standard and Flat versions of the Flam.

The Flam Tap
Although many drummers fail to take advantage of it, the Flam Tap sounds great when applied to the Drum Set. Check out some of the following ideas.

That should keep you busy for at least a week. Remember, this is a continuing series of lessons designed to give you ideas on how to apply the old boring Standard Drum Rudiments to the entire Drum Set. These exercises merely represent my approach to rudiments around the Drum Set. Feel free to modify and experiment with them. Hopefully, that will lead you to other creative ways to make use of Drum Rudiments around the set.

Until next time: Stay loose.

Click the link for Rudiments Around the Drums: Part 3