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And, rudiments are the foundation for actually beginning to play the drums. There are 26 American rudiments. What we are going to focus on today are just three essential rudiments, the single stroke roll, a double stroke roll and what they call a paradiddle. Now, in playing these, they are very simple and they are important for a number of reasons. One is that they help you develop your technique in playing, actually the sticking and actually playing the drum itself. I am going to talk to you a little about holding a stick. It helps you develop that. It also helps you increase your strength and endurance in playing. It helps to build the muscles in the hands. You have to be a stronger player. And also, they help you warm up. It is like the athlete going in the field to play a game, they actually walk and they stretch and they warm up before they actually run and play the sports. It is the same thing. If you want to sit down, play some rudiments, get warmed up before you actually start playing on your drum set.
A couple of other things to keep in mind while you are playing is like what I was saying, by developing your technique. Also, try having a good posture while you are playing. While you are doing your rudiments, focus on your posture. And also, breathing. It is important to continue to breath while you are playing. And also, hold your arms at about a 90-degree angle above the set like that. Because again, remember that it is not your arms that are playing, it is your wrist. It is the fulcrum of the hand that is executing the power. And then, another thing that you want to perhaps get that will help you with your tempo is what they call a metronome. You can pick that up in a music store and what that has is a click trick. You set it for a certain tempo fast or slow and play along with the metronome while you are practicing your rudiments. Some of them actually have flashy lights that you can watch instead of having a click to help you with your tempo.
And another thing that I was talking about was not just the tempo but your dynamic level. When you are practicing your rudiments, also practice dynamics. Usually, at a higher dynamic playing rudimentary, you are going to bring your sticks up high and show your ___ how high up should I bring my sticks when I am playing. The rule of thumb is about 6-8 inches above the drum set. So, you can practice your rudiments in that. It will be like the open position. So, you bring it up 6-8 inches and tap the drum from there. And then also, that would be when you are practicing your rudiments at a slower pace at an open position. And then if you want to speed them up, you put them at a closed position. With that, your stick would be a little bit lower to the set. I am talking about 2-3 inches above the set. Also, what you want to do is to open back and send them slow down to a closed position going a little bit faster. And then, that would create dynamics because when you go a little bit lower, the dynamic can go down. If you are up higher, the dynamics is a little bit louder.
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