Drum Rudiments – Simon Vasey – Freelance drummer and teacher

This is a list of drum rudiments but before you dive in, I should explain that my approach to teaching drum rudiments is different to others’ for a number of reasons.

Right Left vs One Two

It takes mental effort to associate the words ‘Right’ and ‘Left’ with your hands. This slows down learning rudiments, especially for young players, so I use Stick-1 and Stick-2 instead. To start, we imagine that Stick-1 is in the dominant hand (usually the one you hold a pen with) and Stick-2 in the less dominant hand.

As well as making rudiments quicker and easier to learn this also means that Left Handed drummers and Right Handed drummers can learn together without having to think about turning ‘RLRR’ into ‘LRLL’.

Also, using numbers instead of letters naturally helps you lock into the tempo and once the rudiment has been learned it can be practiced starting (remember Stick-1?) with the less dominant hand.

Rudiments as grooves

If we are going to use a rudiment on the kit as a fill or a groove then we need to know how it will fit over a beat. So I’ve shown all the rudiments over a basic 4/4 crotchet beat to give a feel for how it can be applied.

I recommend learning rudiments on a kit rather than just a snare drum. Keeping time using the bass drum and high-hats improves the phrasing of the rudiment and builds independence. It also helps build up your high-hat foot control for that perfect “chick” sound. If you don’t have a kit when practicing rudiments then you should still tap your feet.

Dots and lines

That mess of lines and dots is much easier to understand if you know what the rudiment is supposed to sound like. During a lesson I will demonstrate each rudiment as a groove on the kit but for now I have included a MP3 file with each rudiment below.

Enjoy…