Important Rudiments

The followings rudiments are very important to the foundation of your drum playing ability, much like scales are for melodic/stringed instruments. If you find yourself in a sticky situation, your previous practice experience on these rudiments can bail you out! 

  1. Paradiddle
  2. Single Stroke Roll
  3. Flam Paradiddle
  4. Paradiddle-diddle

Metronome

We play with a click track that we can hear in our ear monitors.  It may take some time to adjust to this, but it is worth the effort.  Although the click mainly functions to keep us together, we also use it for entrances and transitions; so get very comfortable playing to the click.

Set clicks for every song, even if they have tracks.  At times, tracks can misfire, or someone may get off tempo, and you'll need to have a backup click ready to go.  Always have the click ready and follow along in the set for each song even if the click for the entire set is in tracks.

Make sure the click is manually set to eighth-note subdivision.  For instance, if the quarter note is 70, set the click to 140.

  • Remember to bring a tuning key, sticks, and cymbal mallets
  • Stay on the click – try to make it "disappear"
  • Support the song – keep a steady groove
  • Communicate with the bassist and play in sync
  • Play fills that fit within the song framework and fills that build on each other
  • Play to your room – For a smaller room use slightly opened hi-hats compared to crash-riding your biggest cymbal

Things to Keep in Mind

Cleanup

Please, keep the cage and percussion area how you found it.  Dispose of trash – broken sticks, water bottles, old set lists, etc.  If you need to move things around in the drum cage, that's totally fine, but please move them back.