Reversing a years-long boycott, I’ve been using the book Stick Control quite a bit for drum set applications lately. I guess it’s unavoidable that sometimes in playing the drums, we think in terms of stickings. This is an easy drill for doing a rubadub-type move with the exercises on pp. 5-7.
In its basic form, rubadub, as described by Chris Smith, is a three-8th note pattern played in */4 meters. The sticking is LRR, with the L on the snare drum, the first R on a cymbal + bass drum, and the second right on a tom tom:
The sticking alone is:
After learning to play the basic lick in 4/4, you then improvise with it, mix it up, and move it around the drums in different ways. If you can’t do that by just winging it, this Stone-based method will help in opening up some possibilities.
I suppose you could default playing the Rs on the toms, only moving to the cymbal when there’s more than one R. So pattern 5, a paradiddle sticking, would be played:
Here’s that same sticking with my regular orchestration:
With anything to do with rubadub I would be thinking about moving both hands around the drums, and playing ideas as part of a regular jazz texture. Since it is used as a way of playing setups and kicks, and filling in between them, I would be aware of the rhythm of the cymbal/bass drum notes— those are the kicks that the rest of the pattern is setting up. A subject for another post, probably.