Ninja Drummist - Free Drum Lessons

Please excuse the video quality. High quality videos coming soon...

A little taster of the new Hybrid Rudiments page I am working on for my web site and possibly the trickiest lick I have posted to date. I will be creating a glossary of all the known Hybrid Rudiments with free PDF sheet music, listen links and video tutorials. It will also focus on applying these awesome patterns to the drum kit. I will keep you all posted on the hybrid rudiments page via my blog http://www.ninjadrummist.com/blog/

Also, please check out my page on the 40 PAS Rudiments http://www.ninjadrummist.com/drum-education/pas-rudiments/

While many Drum Kit players recognise the importance of developing a good rudimental vocabulary, not enough kit drummers seem to be aware of the huge amount of Hybrid Rudiment possibilities. Snare drummers have been developing rudimental patterns for hundreds of years and much of our musical vocabulary on the kit is comprised of rudiments. I've always felt that it is a shame for kit drummers to be aware of only half of this vocabulary. I know many drummers who have never heard of Hybrid Rudiments and I feel it's time we changed that. Just think of the crazy beats and fills we could create with such complicated sticking patterns!

Hybrid Rudiments are loosely defined as two or more rudiments combined to produce a new rudiment or rudimental pattern, though this is not always the case. Most hybrids are based on the original 40 PAS Rudiments and are especially common in drumlines and drum corps. Because there are an infinite number of ways to produce new patterns and add variations to those patterns, there is no end to the number of possible hybrid combinations.

These are very advanced combinations so you will need to have a good understanding of basic rudiments (see 40 PAS Rudiments lesson on my web site http://www.ninjadrummist.com/drum-education/pas-rudiments/ ) and lots of practise for best results. Lastly, rudiments often have strange names but expect some very strange ones for Hybrid Rudiments!

This particular drum lick is based on the "Book Report" Hybrid Rudiment. It combines the paradiddle with flams and a particularly tricky accent / diddle pattern. Check out the free PDF sheet music at the bottom of the video description. I have no idea why they call it Book Report lol (perhaps someone does?). I personally found it quite hard to avoid accenting the flam at first, especially when trying to play the pattern faster.

I was teaching this hybrid to a student of mine when it suddenly dawned on me that you could create a pretty mean sounding drum beat with this pattern. Many drummers are familiar with playing drum beats using paradiddles (playing the paradiddle sticking pattern between the snare and hi hats) but, as this rudiment is loosely based on a paradiddle, the same principal can be applied.

I am simply playing the Book Report sticking pattern between the snare and hi hats and adding a bass drum on the first note. I will post another video soon showing some of the bass drum variations I have been trying with this hand pattern and also some of the possibilities for moving the accents around in a grid like fashion, stay tuned.

In the last part of the video, I'm demonstrating a few fill in variations also using the Book Report sticking. However I am changing the accent pattern quite a bit here as I've found it sounds cool if you accent all the left hands.

I hope this video will inspire other kit drummers to check out Hybrid Rudiments and develop their drumming vocabulary further. It's time we took full advantage of the centuries of development snare drummers have given to providing us with such a wealth of rudiments, patterns and techniques. As I once put it to a student: "We can either spend centuries discovering and developing this stuff ourselves, or we can listen to the snare drummers." :)

The kit I'm playing has sadly seen better days. Its the practice/teaching kit at work and its in dire need of some new skins. But hey, a bad workman blames his tools. I'm attempting to make a good sound on this kit, despite its faults, guess I like a challenge lol! I find kits like this help me make an even better sound when I get to play my nice Yamaha/Zildjian.

You can download free sheet music for this exercise at http://www.ninjadrummist.com/pdf/notation/book-report-lick.pdf