At this stage we should probably talk a little more about rudiments. As I previously mentioned, Bob Nutt taught singles, doubles and Paradiddles as the first rudiments that we were to practice. He then went on to use these rudiments in the fills that we’ve just been looking at and it worked really well. I truly believe that singles and doubles are the real foundation rudiments.
The paradiddle is a combination of these two rudiments but really comes into its own when it’s played with an accent at the beginning. This is how it is written in the official list of 40 rudiments. This introduces the idea of there being taps and accents in drumming, which is very important if you are playing grooves with any kind of articulation, such as lightly played hi-hats or ghost notes on the snare drum.
To be honest I was never one for endless practising of these rudiments - quite the opposite - I was much more interested in playing grooves and nice sounding fills. About six or seven years ago I began to look more seriously at the Rudiments because I wanted to increase my technical ability a bit. I then discovered the whole range of rudiments and could see how useful they could be. Not just as practice aids but also as concepts. As I have just mentioned with the paradiddle, it’s not just a sticking - right left right right left right left left - but a rudiment with an accent at the beginning and everything else played as taps. In fact the paradiddle works better mechanically when played with taps and accents.
The most succinct list of rudiments is singles, doubles and flams - the flam being the simplest combination of taps and accents in a single rudiment.