No commercial publisher could afford to print and publish a compilation similar to this work as a commercial proposition. This book represents the unselfish contribution of many members of the N.A.R.D. and is the first […]
Category: rudiments
Paradiddles with Bellson
Throwing a bone to fans of Louis Bellson’s Modern Reading Text in 4/4 here, with an easy paradiddle system. Most of these things happen naturally out of my teaching, or my playing; here I just […]
Eight stroke rolls?
Reading George Lawrence Stone’s Technique of Percussion, in a 1953 International Musician column he discusses “compound” rolls— rolls including two accented singles. The six stroke roll is most familiar of that type, the 10 stroke […]
Pataflafla builder
Exceptionally granular page of exercises developing the pataflafla, a drag variant, and Steve Gadd’s pataflafla-ed 6 stroke roll— you can hear that in his solo on the Tom Scott record here. Usually I would walk […]
Paradiddle-diddle phrases – 01
A page of paradiddle-diddle phrases, like some six stroke roll pages from last year. A couple of my students are eating these up. This is how you learn these things, you don’t just go down […]
Lightning round: taking some rudiments down a notch
“There was only one lesson, and that was Lesson 25.” These are some issues with the 40 International Drum Rudiments, that have been irking me for a long time, largely phrased in the second person, […]
Beginning open drags and rolls
UPDATE: I’ve rewritten this page in standard roll/drag notation— in 16th notes in 2/4. You can use the page here as a key if there’s any question of how to interpret it. Basic page of […]
Shifting triplacues? Something?
I don’t know what we call this, “triplacues”? Quasi-irregularly spaced (in this case) flammed triplets, with a accent after the flam, flamacue style? …look, if there was ever any qualm about giving something drumming related […]
Ultimate double paradiddle builder – 01
Happy 2026 everyone— continuing this “ultimate builder” series, with double paradiddles. It looks like a lot of stuff, but these are all things you have to have together to do the actual rudiment. You’ll learn […]
Ho ho ho, right-side diddles
Is that festive? I hope everyone’s holidays have been wonderful— here’s what I do, in between movies (A Christmas Story, then Die Hard, maybe later Brazil. Wife is on a Terry Gilliam kick): This has […]
Pattern barf: what to do with a paradiddle
This is what I do in the mornings: I have my coffee, put on some music, and see people are talking about on line, related to the drums. And then I get irritated, varyingly, and […]
Six stroke roll exploiter
Another very dense page of stuff based on the Ultimate Paradiddle Builder page, and companion to my paradiddle-diddle exploiter page. I’m getting very grandiose in how I name crap. It’s fun, try it sometime. Between […]