The 40 Essential Drum Rudiments

The 40 essential drum rudiments are the Percussive Arts Society's International Drum Rudiments: the 26 American rudiments standardized in 1933, plus 14 more added in 1984. They come in four families: 15 rolls, 4 diddles, 11 flams and 10 drags. Every one below has the correct sticking and accents from the PAS chart. Open one to hear it on a snare at any tempo, read it as sheet music with the sticking under each note, and watch two sticks play it.

All 40 rudiments
Sticking and accents
Play-along at any tempo
Sheet music and animated sticks
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How to read the sticking charts

R: a stroke with the right hand
L: a stroke with the left hand
>: an accent: play it louder, from higher up
lR: a flam: one soft grace note from the other hand, just before
llR: a drag: two soft grace notes (a quick double) just before
Rz: a buzz (multiple bounce) stroke

Each box is one beat, and wider letters last longer. A small 3 or 6 marks a triplet or sextuplet. Where the Percussive Arts Society lets either hand lead, the chart starts on the right; every rudiment's player can flip it to lead with the left.

Build a drill

Tap + Drill on up to 4 rudiments. They open in RockBlocks Stacks as one song that plays them in a random order, round after round, so you have to switch on the fly, and you can print their sheet music with the sticking.

Roll rudiments (15)

Rudiments 1–15: single stroke rolls, multiple bounce rolls, and the double stroke rolls from the five stroke to the seventeen stroke.

Single stroke roll rudiments

Multiple bounce roll rudiments

Double stroke open roll rudiments

Diddle rudiments (4)

Rudiments 16–19: the paradiddles, which mix single strokes and doubles (diddles).

Flam rudiments (11)

Rudiments 20–30: one soft grace note just before a louder main note.

Drag rudiments (10)

Rudiments 31–40: two soft grace notes (a quick double) just before the main note.

Where to start

New to rudiments? Learn these five first. Nearly every other rudiment is built from them:

Single Stroke Roll RLRL RLRL
Double Stroke Open Roll RRLL RRLL
Single Paradiddle RLRR LRLL
Flam lR rL
Drag llR rrL

Then put them on the kit: Lesson 31 turns the paradiddle into a groove, and Lesson 65 builds a march from flam-like accents. The full Drum School has 100 stepwise lessons.

How to practice drum rudiments

Pick a rudiment. Start with the single stroke roll, double stroke roll or single paradiddle if you're new.
Read the sticking. R is right hand, L is left, a > is an accent, and small lowercase letters are grace notes (flams and drags).
Listen at a slow tempo. Press Play to hear it on a snare with a click. The playing note lights up. Accents are loud and taps soft.
Watch the sticks, then copy them. The animated sticks play each stroke from its own height: high for accents, low for taps. Play along on a pad or a pillow.
Speed it up and back down. Turn on Open–close–open to climb a few BPM each time through and come back down, the way the Percussive Arts Society recommends.
Switch hands. Lead with your left hand too, so both hands can start every rudiment.

Want a plain click instead? The free RockBlocks metronome has accents, subdivisions and a speed trainer.

Drum rudiment questions

What are the 40 essential drum rudiments?

They are the Percussive Arts Society's 40 International Drum Rudiments, published in 1984: the 26 American rudiments standardized in 1933 by the National Association of Rudimental Drummers, plus 14 more from drum corps, orchestral, European and drum set playing. They come in four families: 15 roll rudiments, 4 diddle rudiments, 11 flam rudiments and 10 drag rudiments.

What do R and L mean in drum sticking?

R is a stroke with the right hand and L a stroke with the left. A small lowercase letter before a note is a grace note played by the other hand: one (lR) is a flam, two (llR) is a drag. A > above a note is an accent, played louder than the notes around it.

What is an accent in a drum rudiment?

An accent (>) is a note played louder than the others. Drummers get the difference from stick height: accents start high, around 12 inches above the head, and unaccented taps start low, around 2 inches. Most rudiments are only correct when the accents are in the right place.

What is the difference between a flam and a drag?

Both put soft grace notes just before a main note, played by the other hand. A flam has one grace note (lR). A drag, also called a ruff, has two, played as a quick double bounce (llR).

Which drum rudiments should I learn first?

Start with the single stroke roll (RLRL), the double stroke open roll (RRLL), the single paradiddle (RLRR LRLL), the flam and the drag. Nearly every other rudiment is built from those five. Then add the five stroke roll, the flam tap, the flam accent and the single ratamacue.

How should I practice drum rudiments?

The Percussive Arts Society says to practice every rudiment open (slow) to closed (fast) and back to open, or at an even, moderate march tempo. Use a metronome, start slowly enough to play every accent and sticking correctly, lead with both hands, and speed up a few BPM at a time. The RockBlocks rudiment player can ramp the tempo up and down for you.

Which rudiments are the original 26?

Of the 40, these 26 come from the 1933 list: the single stroke roll, the double stroke open roll, the five, seven, nine, ten, eleven, thirteen and fifteen stroke rolls, the single and double paradiddle, the flam, flam accent, flam tap, flamacue, flam paradiddle and flam paradiddle-diddle, the drag, single and double drag tap, Lesson 25, drag paradiddles #1 and #2, and the single, double and triple ratamacue.

Do I need a drum to practice rudiments?

No. A practice pad, a pillow or a book works. Each RockBlocks rudiment page shows two sticks playing it on a snare, so you can copy the hands and stick heights on whatever you have.

Is it free?

Yes. All 40 rudiments, the sheet music and the player are free in any web browser, with no login and no download.

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