by mark wessels
Rudimental Ramblings 4: What Really Works?
June 5, 2010 2:37 pm in Drumset by mark wessels
I’ve enjoyed writing this little series of articles on the rudiments. Not that I have any authority over what is accepted as an “official rudiment” or not — but at least as an exercise in thought on the subject. Is what we’re doing REALLY the best that we can do for kids and teachers, or is there another approach that makes more sense?
I’ve been considering the Rudiment posters that we’ve printed at Vic Firth. Way back when (a little over 10 years ago now), Vic used to print calendars and mail them to every school in the country. I proposed a poster with rudiments instead… It’s much more useful, and band directors wouldn’t have to throw them away every year. Little did I know that we’d wind up printing well over a quarter million of those – and get over 9,000 unique visitors every month to our rudiment feature on the site!
Now the thought plagues me… Is that really the best we can do?
Would it be better to have a “ESSENTIAL STICK TECHNIQUE” poster which would include:
The essential stroke styles (rebound, down, up, tap, bounce)
7 Essential Rudiments (or 10 -12, whatever)
Essential Exercises (where you cover all the other misc techniques that do not necessarily fit as a ‘rudiment’ – like “8 on a hand”, “Bucks (duple/triple)”, “Chicken & a Roll (duple/triple)”, “Grid” – Accents/Diddles/Drags/Flams (duple/triple) and “Timing” (duple/triple).
It seems that a poster with that info in the hands of a band director, drumset instructor or student would be much more valuable.
Coming from the not-so-rudiment orientated UK I would say that this would be good. I had a pretty rudimental back ground but very litle from an actual technique perspective and the rudiment and Groove Essential posters from VF had a big effect on me as a student and teacher.
Strokes, essential patterns, rhythms (I know there is the check patterns poster now) would all be really useful, certainly more than single, double, triple ratamacue and flam paradiddle diddle to many beginners in my humble opinion.
My two main points really would be
1) all variety is great to expose kids to, they will follow anything up in their own time if they find it attractive.
2) I would have concerns over trying to put pictures of grips and strokes up when there seems to be quite a difference in opinion between corps and kit players when it comes to fulcrums/pressure/tension/appearance etc.
I’d certainly like to be part of a PDT consultation on what to include!
All good thoughts.
As a music teacher in a larger school, we have the budget for more than one music teacher. Being that I graduated with a percussion concentration, I am in charge of anything and everything percussion related. It’s really great for the students to have the opportunity with a specialist on their instruments, but I run into a lot of RE-teaching and retraining. There are a few students who have taken a few private lessons and that most certainly helps, but it amazes me that at the high school level my students coming in have no idea what a rebound stroke is. I understand that not everyone in the world is a drummer, but I’m pretty sure I took the time to learn the woodwind specialist’s craft too (Granted I’m not the best, but I still know the required technique).
As I do not feel there really are 7,12, 20 “essential” rudiments, I think it would be a great idea to have a basic stroke style poster containing not only the technique, but relevant exercises on it as well. This would not only help students see how to execute and practice proper sticking, but it should most certainly help the non-percussion music teacher educate their students to not “just bang on stuff all day.”
Yes, Mark!
Often, rudiments and certain technical skills become departmentalized into genres and aren’t explored by drummers unless through lessons. If a private student of mine isn’t in school band or drumline he or she probably hasn’t been exposed to grids or check patterns – valuable tools no matter what type of music you play. So short of suggesting excellent rudimental books they’re really not interested in, I find myself writing out exercises to teach them these concepts. And as mentioned previously in this series of blog, mastering basic strokes and a short list of primary rudiments allows you to play MUSIC better.
And for students who ARE in school band, having access to a “basic skills” poster would be excellent. Band directors tend to endorse things that are “official”, and this could aid in exposing percussionists to many, often over-looked, fundamentals.
How soon can they be printed?? : )