Rudiments are the most basic and fundamental drum beatings. They are strung together to create beatings to accompany tunes and to be used as drum solos. In the days before common, standardized drum notation, rudiments and tunes were taught phonetically. Therefore, most rudiments' names sounded as they were played, leading to names such as the "ruff," "paradiddle," and "ratamacue."

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Traditionally, proficiency in these rudiments is demonstrated by playing them open to closed to open (slow to fast to slow) in a continuous pattern. The US Army Old Guard Fife and Drum Corps recommends that the closing and opening of the long roll take 2 minutes (1 minute in, and 1 minute out), and the closing and opening of the other rudiments take 1 minute (30 seconds in, 30 seconds out). These are generally good guidelines.

 

In fact, it is a useful challenge for the advanced drummer to close and open the rudiments in front of a clock or stopwatch, and make them precise to the second. Applying this exercise to the long roll, I believe it to be best to spend 15 seconds on each end with very open taps, 15 seconds on each end closing the taps to open diddles, 10 seconds on each end closing the diddles, and 10 seconds in the middle demonstrating the top speed. If one graphed the tempo over time, you are attempting to make a completely smooth parabolic arch over the entire playing of the rudiment. I leave it to the reader to adapt this theory to the other rudiments.

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26 rudiments are considered original, and they therefore make up the vast majority of ancient rudimental drumming and comprise the backbone of even the modern rudimental style. As adopted by the National Association of Rudimental Drummers (NARD), these rudiments are:

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1. The Long Roll (doubles)

2. The Five Stroke Roll

3. The Seven Stroke Roll

4. The Flam

5. The Flam Accent

6. The Flam Paradiddle (flamadiddle)

7. The Flamacue

8. The Ruff (drag)

9. The Single Drag (drag tap)

10. The Double Drag (double drag tap)

11. The Double Paradiddle

12. The Single Ratamacue

13. The Triple Ratamacue

14. The Single Stroke Roll (singles)

15. The Nine Stroke Roll

16. The Ten Stroke Roll

17. The Eleven Stroke Roll

18. The Thirteen Stroke Roll

19. The Fifteen Stroke Roll

20. The Flam Tap

21. The Single Paradiddle (paradiddle)

22. The Drag Paradiddle Number 1

23. The Drag Paradiddle Number 2

24. The Flam Paradiddlediddle (flamadiddlediddle)

25. The Lesson 25

26. The Double Ratamacue

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The NARD sheet music for the first 13 can be found here, and the second thirteen can be found here.

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The Percussive Arts Society (PAS) has modernized the original 26 rudiments by adding 14, making a list of 40. These 40 flesh out the modern style of rudimental drumming and can even add pizzazz to the playing of a more ancient style of drumming. The 14 additional rudiments are:

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27. The Single Stroke Four

28. The Single Stroke Seven

29. The Multiple Bounce Roll

30. The Triple Stroke Roll

31. The Six Stroke Roll

32. The Seventeen Stroke Roll

33. The Triple Paradiddle

34. The Single Paradiddlediddle

35. The Single Flammed Mill

36. The Pataflafla

37. The Swiss Army Triplet

38. The Inverted Flam Tap

39. The Flam Drag

40. The Single Dragadiddle

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PAS's sheet music for the 40 essential rudiments can be found here.

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Hybrid rudiments are variations and combinations of the forty essential rudiments, meant to expand the repertoire and playing ability of the modern drummer. Since there is nearly no end to the various iterations possible, there are several hundred known hybrid rudiments. One need not familiarize themselves with all of them, since they are the result of tampering with the forty essential rudiments, a working knowledge of the forty should allow the drummer to adapt to the hybrids that he needs rather quickly. For those interested, here is a list of 507 hybrid rudiments. I have found it useful to be well acquainted with (in no particular order):

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1. The Herta

2. The Flam Five

3. The Cheese