Definition
Rudiments are the basic technical cells of the drum: standard combinations of right (R) and left (L) hands, accents and ornaments. The Percussive Arts Society (PAS) codifies 40 of them (International Drum Rudiments), in four families: rolls, diddles (paradiddles and the like), flams and drags. Even if you program and don't play, knowing them helps you write fills, hi-hats and percussion that seem played by a human being: every rudiment has a physical logic (alternating hands, rebound, accents) that you can hear.
The essential rudiments
| Rudiment | Sticking | Use in production |
|---|---|---|
| Single stroke roll | R L R L | build-up rolls, fast hi-hats |
| Double stroke roll | R R L L | “bounced” rolls, more connected |
| Single paradiddle | R L R R L R L L | hi-hat/snare grooves, funk fills |
| Double paradiddle | R L R L R R L R L R L L | groups of 6 (sixteenth-note triplets) |
| Paradiddle-diddle | R L R R L L | sextuplet fills, metal, gospel |
| Flam | lR (grace note + stroke) | thickness on the backbeat, accents |
| Flam tap | lR R rL L | marching fills |
| Drag (ruff) | llR | stroke with a double grace note |
| Ratamacue | llR L R L | fills with a final accent |
| Five/seven stroke roll | RRLLR / RRLLRRL | short crescendos |
| Single stroke four / seven | RLRL / RLRLRLR | irregular groups in fills |
(Lowercase letters are grace notes, played lightly.)
Translating a rudiment into MIDI
- Different hands = slightly different sounds: in a sampler use round robin or two alternating samples for R and L; alternatively vary velocity (±5) and pitch (±10 cents).
- Flam: grace note 15–30 ms before the main stroke, velocity 30–50% of the main stroke. In FL Studio the Piano Roll's Flam tool generates the grace note automatically.
- Drag: two very close grace notes (e.g. thirty-second notes) before the stroke.
- Double stroke: the second stroke of each pair is a little weaker (rebound), about −10/−15 velocity.
- Accents of the paradiddle: on the first stroke of each group (R L R R): moving the accent gives syncopated figures.
Rudiments applied to the groove
- Paradiddle on the kit: R on the hi-hat, L on the snare (ghost), with the snare accent on 2 and 4: a linear funk groove.
- Paradiddle-diddle on the toms: sextuplet fill descending high → low.
- Single strokes in 32nd notes that accelerate: EDM build-up roll (eighth notes → sixteenth notes → sixteenth-note triplets → thirty-second notes).
- Double strokes on the hi-hats: the basis of the trap “roll” (programmed in triplets or thirty-second notes with alternating velocity).
- Linear drumming (Gary Chaffee, David Garibaldi): no limb plays together with another; derived from combinations of rudiments.
Example
One-bar fill at 120 BPM in 4/4 before a chorus in A minor (Am – F – C – G):
- beats 1–2: paradiddle in sixteenth notes on snare (accents on the initial R strokes),
- beat 3: single strokes in sixteenth notes between high tom and mid tom,
- beat 4: flam on the low tom on 4, kick on the “&” of 4, crash + kick on the following 1.
Recommended study
George Lawrence Stone, “Stick Control” (1935): sticking exercises that, read as patterns, become rhythms for hi-hat and percussion. Ted Reed, “Syncopation” (1958). Jim Chapin, “Advanced Techniques for the Modern Drummer.” The 40 PAS rudiments with official notation are on the PAS website.
Exercise
- Program the first five rudiments of the table on a snare with two alternating samples (R and L) and compare them with the single-sample version.
- Create three one-bar fills using only paradiddle, flam and single stroke four.
- Play a paradiddle on the pads (or the keyboard) at 80 BPM for 2 minutes with the metronome, then at 100: record it and observe the velocities you naturally produce.
Connections
“Ghost notes and dynamics”, “Fills and transitions”, “Triplets and irregular groups”, “Humanize and groove templates”.