In a perfect world, any accent you play can easily have a diddle stacked on it. I want your world to become more perfect as you learn the technique to do just this. The accented diddle should have both beats of the diddle accented, the first beat as a free stroke, and the second as …
Much like the flam, we probably all know what a drag is and can all play a few, but that’s not our goal here. The technique to play hand to hand drags up-tempo involves a free stroke rebounding or flopping down into a finger control double stroke. Your jazz ride cymbal pattern among others will …
Wrists can only do so much, and “so much” does not include inverted flam taps. In order to get the stick to go from low to high in a hurry we’ll need to replace the wrist motion with a forearm motion (Moeller whip stroke). After whipping the accent we’ll need to stop the stick low, …
Inverted Flam Tap – Hands Separate/Hands Together Read More »
This rudiment contains an intentionally weak bouncing, decrescendo-ing triple-stroke motion, or “no-chop flop-and-drop” as I like to call it. This is one of those times when not trying requires effort, the fingers basically do nothing. When there’s not enough time to stop the stick to go from high to low (downstroke), bouncing the stick down …
The Flam Accent has long been referred to as a “gateway” rudiment since mastering its hand motion opens so many doors technically (just like all of these 12 rudiments on my list). It includes downstrokes and upstrokes, plus a low triple stroke after the accent to be played with the “drop-dribble-catch” technique (wrist-finger-finger). Stick height …
We probably all know what a flam is and can play a few, but that’s not our goal here. The technique to play them hand to hand flams up-tempo involves the Moeller “whip and flop” technique which is incredibly useful, and that’s what we’re going to dial in. If you left your wrist muscles at …
If you want to play a smooth roll and then pop out single accent strokes, this rudiment will teach you everything you need to know. The concept is this: While the forearms pump out a smooth roll, the wrists can turn up on top of that to play accents minus the diddles. Once this is …
Contrary to popular belief, the para-diddle is not just a sticking, it’s also an accent pattern! That’s what gives it its flavor and is what we want to dial in via downstrokes and upstrokes. The finger control for the low diddle is also a vital element, we’ll use the “drop-catch” (or low “alley-oop”) technique for …
Buzz rolls are very easy to play, but very hard to play well. One must press into the drumhead just the right amount given the tempo, primary stroke rate, volume, drum head response and stick height. Even when done as efficiently as possible, this still may be the most physically demanding rudiment of all. Pump …
Ride cymbals love triple beats, especially well played rebounding triple beats that don’t weakly decrescendo since the player has great finger control. We’re heading into “alley-oop-oop” land where the first stroke is played mainly from the wrists, and the second and third strokes are played mainly by the fingers. Whether primarily driven by the wrist …