It's Not So Rudimentary

You’ve probably formed the impression that I’m not a big fan of 'the rudiments', but there are times when they're just the thing. And there are a number of rudiments that are fabulous if not essential. 

When trying to define the rudiments there’s the a bit of a dilemma. Which of the available rudiment ‘schools’ are to be included: American? Swiss? Other? All of them? So saying that we're going to look at or work on rudiments can be vague.

Let's begin with the “40 Standard Rudiments" (the American ones -- born in Europe, BTW). That's a lot of rudiments. Chances are you play a few of these already even if you've never studied rudiments -- long roll, flam, paradiddle, ruff, and others. 

Then we have the so-called Swiss rudiments. There are about 300 of them! Again, you've probably used a few (Swiss triplets anyone?) but 300? I’ve checked them out and ...  life is too short. 

Other countries -- mainly in Europe -- have their own rudiments and interpretations of rudiments. France and Germany, for example, have between them three different 4-stroke ruffs, none of which are the same as the American variety. 

There’s also a rather amorphous group called the Hybrid Rudiments. At last count, they topped the 500 mark. 

I guess what I'm trying to say here is that the word rudiment gets thrown around a lot, and often without an understanding of what the rudiments entail. There's nothing wrong with the rudiments and nothing wrong with studying them. And you won’t know which ones will  and which ones won’t work for you and your music if you don’t give them a try. And some of them will likely become your best friends.

http://nard.us.com/
http://www.pas.org/