10. The Fifteen Stroke Roll

The fifteen stroke roll is a less popular rudiment; however it is still important to practice. This rudiment contains 15 strokes, 7 doubles followed by a single. Practicing this rudiment will help to develop stick control and endurance, as you have to make sure you are playing 15 strokes. Since this is longer rudiment to play, you will develop endurance when you practice this at faster tempos. Most drummers fail to practice this rudiment, thinking if they can play a 5 or 7 stroke roll, they can play this. Do not fall under that category of drummers. Practice this rudiment regularly to master your drum roll on the snare drum and the toms. Like other rudiments, the fifteen stroke roll can be written a number of ways. Here are a few examples:

11. The Single Paradiddle

So how do you do the single paradiddle? It’s very simple if you start out slow and with a metronome. I mentioned before that it is a combination of the single and double stroke roll. RLRL and RRLL. It is done like this,

R L R R or L R L L

When played together, you will get a continuous sound on the drum, almost like a roll. This would look like this:

Lets try the single paradiddle with some accents.

12. The Double Paradiddle

One of the most important rudiments to learn is the paradiddle, but what about the double paradiddle? As a drummer, the double paradiddle should be one of the top 5 drum rudiments you practice regularly! But what makes the double paradiddle so important? A lot of things actually. This rudiment is used in Jazz music, Latin music, as well as drum solos and drum fills too! So let me teach you how to play the double paradiddle drum rudiment.

The double paradiddle is very similar to the single paradiddle. However, it does not follow the same rule as the double stroke roll. The single paradiddle is:

 Left   Right   Left   Left   Right  Left  Right   Right

So for the double paradiddle, you will want to double the single strokes on there, not the double strokes.In fact, practice the single stroke four rudiment, you are using that and the double stroke roll to create the double paradiddle. Let me break that down for you:

Left   Right   Left   Right   Left   Left   Right   Left   Right   Left   Right   Right

Read that carefully, as it is a little confusing at first. Let me note it out for you here. The snare will be your right hand, and your tom will be your left hand. If you cannot read sheet music, click on this lessons on understanding drum notation. This way it is easier to see the rudiment:

13. The Flam Stroke

The trick to getting the best sound out of a flam stroke, is to get one stroke to sound like an echo of the other. To achieve this sound, start out with both sticks at the same height. Then, lower one stick by about 3 inches. Then, at the same speed, hit your drum. Notice how one hits right before the other? This is a Flam. You may have already been doing flams already, due to lack of coordination when striking the drum at the same time.

The flam looks like this:

rL rL rL rL rL or lR lR lR lR lR

Make sure you practice the flam both ways, with your right stick hitting first, and your left. These are used in many different applications around the kit. Weather you are using the toms, snare or cymbals, you can use them everywhere. For practicing, try to add them into your normal rudiments. For example, if you are practicing your double stoke roll, instead of tapping twice, try using flams. Here are a few excercises: