Download The Sheet Music (PDF)
Rudiments have the reputation to be boring. It’s the one thing everyone tells you to practice for hours on end (they DO make up everything we play), but how can we spice things up? In today’s lesson, I’m going to show you some cool ways to take boring rudiments and make them fun again. It’s a great way to stay inspired and build on your drumming vocabulary!
The general concept behind this lesson is changing the note value of the rudiments we already play. If you find you’re struggling, watch the video above to get a better idea of how these all sound. I’ll also show you a few applications around the kit!
This rudiment is most commonly played as 8th or 16th note triplets, but let’s move it over to straight 16th notes. As you probably guessed, since the triple stroke roll is a three-note grouping, this is going to feel a little awkward at first. This will also change how it resolves.
As you can see, re-thinking your rudiments this way is going to help you discover new vocabulary and get you thinking outside the box.
This is a two-note pattern traditionally written as 8th or 16th notes, but today we’re going to play them as 16th note triplets. This means there’s going to be three sets of double strokes per count! Start SLOW.
Let’s kick things up a notch and play this rudiment as 32nd notes. Since there are 6 notes in a double paradiddle and 32 notes in a full bar of 32nd notes, it’s not going to resolve properly. If we play the double-paradiddle 5 times, we’ll end up with 30 notes. This means we need to add 2 more notes on our left hand to get 32 notes in total.
This rudiment is usually played as 8th note triplets, but let’s turn this puppy into 16th notes. This pattern will resolve the same way the triple stroke roll ended with one left-handed stroke (but this time we’ll be playing a flam instead).
This rudiment doesn’t have you alternating lead hands every time it repeats, so just pick whichever hand you’re most comfortable right to start this one off. Let’s put this through the same process we put the last pattern through.
Now it’s your turn! Take your favorite rudiments and try changing up the note value. Not only will you get better at playing rudiments as a whole, but you’ll also have a larger musical toolbox to pull from every time you go to play a drum fill. Have fun with this and I hope you enjoyed the lesson.
We’ve put together a playlist with drumless tracks at different tempos so you can practice your rudiments over real music:
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