The correct way to play ruffs (or drags if you prefer) on the snare drum is an extremely attractive topic for repeated, endless debate. Evidently. I’ve seen it again and again, people going nuts for the topic. The […]
Category: rudiments
Chop busters: syncopated flammed 16ths
More rooting around in my archives, with a stealth from the zone item. I found this in one of my notebooks from high school, and it’s worth playing, with some mixed 16th note rhythms with […]
Nothing to do with drumming?
Dave Elitch (L) with Rational Funk’s Dave King There was a fascinating exchange on Instagram, starting with the drummer Dave Elitch (formerly of the band Mars Volta, done a bunch of big gigs), who gave […]
It’s suspect: nothing but singles, doubles, and flams
New recurring (maybe) feature, inspired by Modern Drummer’s It’s Questionable column. I’ll call it It’s Suspect, and say a few words about an annoyingly wrong but persistent drumming myth. This question was asked on a […]
Dodge Drum Chart
An interesting item: the Dodge Drum Chart, by Frank Dodge, edited and published by George Lawrence Stone. It was advertised on the back cover of my first copy of Stick Control, so it’s one of […]
Sidebar: open and closed
As long as I’ve been playing, with the people I’ve been around*, open and closed were understood to refer to, respectively, double-stroke, rudimental-style rolls, and multiple-bounce, orchestral style rolls. Double strokes = open, multiple-bounce = closed. That […]
Best books: Rudimental Primer by Mitchell Peters
Mitchell Peters is becoming the guy for snare drum literature, for me— his books form a thorough and complete vocabulary for the snare drum as it is played in the real world. They’re adequately challenging for […]
New rudiment: Swisscues
New rudiment time: a flam rudiment combining a Swiss Triplet and a Flamacue. It’s so basic I can’t imagine it doesn’t already exist somewhere, but I’m not digging through the lists of 50,000 hybrid rudiments […]
Double-paradiddle / paradiddle-diddle inversions – linear, all on one page
I wrote this up for myself, maybe you’ll use it, too. These are the 6/8 linear versions of the double paradiddle and paradiddle-diddle inversions page, written for snare drum and bass drum— that’s easier for […]
Paradiddle-diddle inversions
Remember that page of double paradiddle inversions I wrote back in April? April 2020. Or, ~198,000 United States COVID deaths ago, for those of you who have abandoned calendars and moved over to a death-count based time […]
Alternating flam rudiments tree
Just a little throwaway graphic illustrating the connectedness of flam rudiments. People think of them as “omg a bunch of different things”, but they use very similar motions. The key rudiment here is the Flam […]
Double paradiddle inversions for drumset
Following up on my big rudimental tantrum post, here’s a little exploration of double paradiddles— I mentioned that a good friend, and one of the most creative drummers I know, Steve Pancerev, is a fan […]