Continuing with this nerdly topic of problems with roll notation in Charley Wilcoxon’s book Rolling In Rhythm; it should have been the authoritative book on rudimental rolls, but is compromised at times by some very […]
Category: snare drum
Accents in Reed
TOTAL nerd stuff here. I use the accent pages in Progressive Steps to Syncopation (pp. 47-49) with my students for convenience, but I find them be a pain. They’re thorough, but poorly balanced— so if […]
A little technique video
Let’s talk more about me. I just posted a little technique video in response to a forum conversation. Someone was confused about the meanings of the stroke types, and wanted evidence of my competency to […]
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 […]
“Snare Conditioner” in 6/8
I mentioned to Adam Osmianski that I wanted a 6/8 version of his transcription of the found-music malfunctioning air conditioner drum solo, and he encouraged me to go ahead and do it myself, so here […]
40 international drum rudiments— a frank appraisal
Here at last is my opinionated commentary on each of the 40 PAS international drum rudiments— the good are praised, the questionable are denigrated and hounded from the public sphere. The abstruse are eschewed. I’ll […]
Long rolls, Reed format
A supplemental Reed item— this is about the level of thing I’m capable of right now. Not written out of any pressing need, hahaha, except this is a basic thing it’s not easy for intermediate […]
Flam combinations in 6/8
Way too many wordy posts recently, with more coming, so let’s do a simple page of flam exercises in 6/8— in a triplet feel. Like p. 34 in Stick Control, but more robust. Whenever I […]
Snare drummers vs. drum set players
This came up in the Neil Peart piece: the idea of snare drummers as opposed to drum set players. People who play the drums as a single four limb instrument vs. people who are essentially […]
Three Camps – 16th notes, combination stickings
The traditional rudimental piece Three Camps is a good framework for drilling speed and endurance, and to that end I’ve written several paradiddle combination stickings to use with it. I’ve been playing it as 16th […]
Rudiments in 5/8
A page of snare drum rudiment practice phrases, written in 5/8, in a 3+2 phrasing. Keep this with your copy of Haskell Harr (book 2) or Rudimental Swing Solos. These can all be played at […]
Beginning snare drum books
Winner 1 A brief roundup of some available beginning snare drum books— books for first year students who have never played before, roughly age 10 and up. May also use them with more experienced players […]