As my students hear on a regular basis, the study of rudiments is crucial for developing a solid technical foundation as a percussionist. I think of rudiments as a percussionists' basics and essentials, but not because they are easy or meant only for beginners. The 40 Percussive Arts Society International Drum Rudiments encompass a huge variety of combinations of different types of strokes and stickings that, when mastered at a variety of tempi and dynamics, leave the player well-prepared to tackle most technical challenges in music.

Let me explain more of what I mean by types of strokes and stickings.

I conceptualize all snare drumming (excluding only multiple-bounce and double-stroke rolls) to be made up of four basic types of strokes:

Full stroke: the stick starts high, rebounds, and ends in the starting position. (Full stroke can occur at any dynamic, with starting stick height to be adjusted to create desired dynamic.)
Down stroke: the stick starts high, the rebound is controlled, and the stick ends low (very close to the drum head).
Up stroke: the stick starts low, the rebound is assisted by the player's wrist and arm, and the stick ends high.
Tap: the stick starts low, and ends low, in starting position.

The type of stroke for any note depends on two factors: the volume of the note in context of the rudiment or musical passage, and the height of the note that follows. In other words, every stroke consists of two parts: the "pre-stroke" prepares to strike the drum and create the sound of the note on the page, and the "post-stroke" serves to set up the proper stick height for the following note.

The term "stickings" simply refers to playing each note with either the Right or Left hand. Many players, especially beginners, have a strong predisposed preference for one hand, and the ideal is to become equally competent and comfortable with both hands, and with any combination of stickings that the music may demand. To tackle this skill, I recommend starting with the four Diddle Rudiments in group II. of the PAS International Drum Rudiments and the Single Beat Combinations that begin on page 5 of G. L. Stone's Stick Control.

As an educator, one of my primary goals is always to equip students with the basic musical and technical skills they'll need for a variety of musical situations and challenges that may exist in their futures. For percussion students, this means studying and mastering the basics, including types of strokes, stickings, and rudiments.

For more on the four basic types of strokes and their application to specific rudiments, keep reading to see my next post, Part Two: Application of the Strokes.

As a performer and instructor, I often find it enormously helpful to diagnose technical or musical problems by isolating what one hand must play from the other hand. In the following examples, I will break down several rudiments to show the strokes and rhythm that each individual hand must perform to play the rudiments cleanly and accurately.

The Flam Rudiments, part III. of the Percussive Arts Society International Rudiments, can serve as a prime example of application of the Four Basic Types of Strokes to rudimental snare drumming. (For a review of the Four Basic Types of Strokes, see Part One of this series.)

Let's first apply the four basic types of strokes to the flam. A flam, for any non-percussionists, is a note with a single grace note. A flam serves an ornamental purpose, fattening the attack of a note to create variety in articulation. To play a flam, a percussionist sets up with one stick low (perhaps 1-2 inches from the head) and the other stick high (specific height depends on dynamic) and brings the sticks down at the same time. Since the low stick, or grace note, is set up closer to the drum head, it attacks just before the high stick, or main note. The effect should be a slightly widened attack; I often tell students to consider the two strokes of the flam to be one event: a "flam" rather than a "fa - lam." If the left stick is set up low and right stick high, we refer to this as a right flam, since the right stick is the main note. Conversely, a left flam is set up with the left stick high and right stick low.

In the following examples, I use the following abbreviations to denote stroke types:

F = full stroke
T = tap
D = down stroke
U = up stroke

The stem lengths in the following examples are meant to represent three different stick heights:

The longest stem represents an accented high stick height.
The medium stem represents an unaccented high height.
The shortest stem represents a low stick height.

A series of flams can be played as repeated right or left flams, or alternating flams.

To play repeated right flams, the right hand plays only full strokes, while the left hand plays only taps, placed just before the right hand attack. Each hand separately would look like this:

For repeated left flams, the reverse is true: full strokes in the left hand, and taps in the right.

To play alternating flams, the right and left hands utilize alternating up and down strokes to set up for the opposite flam. For example, after playing a right flam, the right stick must be set low to prepare to be the grace note in the upcoming left flam. After playing the grace note, the right stick must be raised to prepare for the upcoming right flam. When playing alternating flams, each hand individually plays the following pattern: up-down-up-down-etc.

The flam tap is slightly more complicated. Since flam taps alternate in succession, each hand repeats the same stroke pattern of full-down-up, with an accent on the full stroke:

The flam accent pattern is similar to the flam tap, but follows a different rhythmic pattern and a full stroke is added after the up stroke. Each hand will play full-down-up-full, with an accent on the first full stroke:

Isolating each hand can make it much easier to diagnose and correct issues in rudiments (and really, in any musical passage). I find that if each hand can perform the rhythms and strokes demanded by the rudiments cleanly and accurately, success in performing the composite rudiment is much more likely. This strategy can also help students begin to develop a detail-orientated approach to practicing, which will certainly be useful in their continued musical studies.

Please be contact me with questions or feedback!

An Analytical Approach to Rudiments: Part One, Types of Strokes and Stickings

An Analytical Approach to Rudiments: Part Two, Application of the Strokes