The alphabet of the snare — forty patterns from which every fill is spelled.
The rudiments are the fundamental sticking patterns of the snare drum — the vocabulary a drummer drills until the hands know them without thought, then recombines into everything else. The modern standard is the forty International Drum Rudiments codified by the Percussive Arts Society, built out from the older twenty-six of the American tradition. They divide into four families: rolls (sustained sound through singles, buzzes, or doubles), diddles (the paradiddle group, alternating singles and doubles), flams (a grace note struck just before the beat), and drags (two grace notes before the beat).
The forty, sorted into their four families, with the roll family's own three branches:
flowchart TD
R["The 40 rudiments"]
R --> Ro["Rolls — sustained sound"]
R --> Di["Diddles — the paradiddle group"]
R --> Fl["Flams — one grace note"]
R --> Dr["Drags — two grace notes"]
Ro --> S["Single stroke"]
Ro --> Mb["Multiple bounce"]
Ro --> Ds["Double stroke open"]
Roll Rudiments
Single stroke: Single Stroke Roll · Single Stroke Four · Single Stroke Seven Multiple bounce: Multiple Bounce Roll · Triple Stroke Roll Double stroke open: Double Stroke Open Roll · Five Stroke Roll · Six Stroke Roll · Seven Stroke Roll · Nine Stroke Roll · Ten Stroke Roll · Eleven Stroke Roll · Thirteen Stroke Roll · Fifteen Stroke Roll · Seventeen Stroke Roll
Diddle Rudiments
Single Paradiddle · Double Paradiddle · Triple Paradiddle · Single Paradiddle-Diddle
Flam Rudiments
Flam · Flam Accent · Flam Tap · Flamacue · Flam Paradiddle · Single Flammed Mill · Flam Paradiddle-Diddle · Pataflafla · Swiss Army Triplet · Inverted Flam Tap · Flam Drag
Drag Rudiments
Drag · Single Drag Tap · Double Drag Tap · Lesson 25 · Single Dragadiddle · Drag Paradiddle No. 1 · Drag Paradiddle No. 2 · Single Ratamacue · Double Ratamacue · Triple Ratamacue
Related
- Music Hub
- Music Background — twenty-plus years at the kit