This week I focused on learning and developing the ruff rudiment. This rudiment is essentially a drag/flam and a 4 stroke roll combined. Similar to drags and flams a ruff is an ornamented note, however, instead of only one or two grace notes before the primary note the ruff has three. These grace notes are played using alternate sticking which looks like: RLRL or LRLR (the final note being the primary note).

To learn this rudiment I focused on practicing them separated and without tension, they are a little slow overall but sometimes that is needed in order to omit any extra tension in the arms, wrists, and hands. Here is an example from my practice:

 

 

Other than ruffs I have used this week to start to compile my final performance video of exercises that demonstrate the rudiments I have been working on for this half of the semester. I’m excited to post it very soon and show off what I have learned. This has been a really productive journey for me so far and I hope I can keep developing my skills on snare and other instrument beyond this experience.

 

Photo by Nana Yaw Otoo on Unsplash