Rudimental beats

Though my title is a dvd by Bill Bachman (another member of Drummers for Jesus) my post is actually on some practice methods that I like to use. I started this last night and just got around to finishing it on my lunch break so if it seems fragmented I apologize in advance.

For one, I don't have a drum set at my current residence (both of which will hopefully be changing in the near future) I instead practice on a series of practice pads, and while I usually set them up in some semblance of a kit, I occasionally just work off one pad.

Now Tommy Igoe (see previous post regarding groove essentials) has described rudiments as a type of highly addictive need a fix kind of drug for drummers,especially for those of us coming in from a drum line background (See here for details you're looking for Installment 6: PASIC Clinic: “Applying the Rudimental Vocabulary to the Drumset”).

While I'm not that bad, (Really, I can quit at any time, I just don't want to that's all!) I have found that slowly working through rudiments can help you get used to little nuances that apply well to set drumming. I usually, (however) practice my rudiments at medium to fast tempos while listening to music, creating something of a snare cadence piece to what ever I may be listening to at any given time. It helps keep my mind sharp and in a "drumming" state of mind. Though unless you've been there I doubt you'd understand what I meant by that last statement.

If you're a beginning drummer, or one just coming back after being out of practice I would recommend this exercise to you, go get your ipod/cd player/mp3 player/ whatever, set it to random, and then just play a cadence to whatever is playing, I use this as my warm up for serious practice because it relaxes me and again gets me in a drumming frame of mind. A normal randomized set of music will take me from classical symphony to progressive rock, to R&B to Jazz to Rock and roll to swing and everywhere else in between.

So go try it, and if you do let me know if you've find it helps you as much as it does me, and drop me line if you have a better way to describe a drumming frame of mind.

~Matt