Learn Which Drum Rudiments to Practice

When you look at the complete list of the 40 essential rudiments, you are usually overwhelmed with the amount of different patterns you can do with your drumsticks. This is ok, it happens to every drummer. The truth is there is a lot f drum rudiments! So which rudiment should you practice? Well that is a very easy question to answer- All of them. But in all seriousness, a lot of these rudiments are just variations of each other. So to simplify your practice time, there are a few basic rudiments that you should definitely study over the rest. If you only have a certain amount of practice time, then you should focus on a certain few, rather than stretch yourself too far. So which rudiments should you focus more time on?

Let’s start with the complete list of the essential rudiments:

  • Single Stroke Roll
  • Single Stroke Four
  • Single Stroke Seven
  • Multiple Bounce Roll
  • Triple Stroke Roll
  • Double Stroke Roll
  • Five Stroke Roll
  • Six Stroke Roll
  • Seven Stroke Roll
  • Nine Stroke Roll
  • Thirteen Stroke Roll
  • Fifteen Stroke Roll
  • Seventeen Stroke Roll
  • Flam
  • Flam Accent
  • Flam Tap
  • Flamacue
  • Flam Paradiddle
  • Single Flammed Mill
  • Flam Paradiddle-diddle
  • Pataflafla
  • Swiss Army Triplet
  • Inverted Flam Tap
  • Flam Drag
  • Single Paradiddle
  • Double Paradiddle
  • Triple Paradiddle
  • Paradiddle-diddle
  • Ruff
  • Single Drag Tap
  • Double Drag Tap
  • Single Dragadiddle
  • Drag Paradiddle #1
  • Drag Paradiddle #2
  • Single Ratamacue
  • Double Ratamacue
  • Triple Ratamacue

Drum Rudiment SystemThat list is rather big. So let’s decipher which rudiments are the most important to learn first. All drumming, no matter what style (Rock, Latin, Jazz…) is based the single stroke roll, and the double stroke roll. These are the top two rudiments you should practice over every other rudiment. The single stroke roll will build overall stick speed and control, while the double stroke roll will work on independence and control. These two combined will give you the ability to play every other rudiment on the list.

Practicing these two can be boring after a while, so let’s throw in a few more. The next few important rudiments I would suggest you work on are the paradiddle and the flam stroke. The paradiddle will help develop stick control better than the double stroke. It will help you also create a different feel in your left and right hand, allowing them to work on their own independently. This is a great rudiment as it fits great in solos and grooves. The flam stroke is great to work on as it develops a feel for the sticks unlike what you have been previously been practicing.

Obviously practicing every rudiment is essentially what you want to do, however if you only work on a few every time, make sure you nail these first 4 down. When you get really skilled at this, you will be able to mix the 4 rudiments together, and thus play other rudiments. An example of this would be playing the paradiddle with a flam stroke – thus playing the flam paradiddle. So as you can see, these 4 rudiments are essentially what make up the rest of them. So make sure you are familiar with these first! Not sure the best way to practice these? Click on this article on showing you the best way to practice drum rudiments.

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