THE PURPOSE OF DRUM
Why study rudiments and practice rudimental breakdowns? Drum rudiments are extremely important for many reasons. They help build coordination, endurance, precision, and most importantly, timing. Coordination is learned by studying the sticking patterns of the various rudiments. The more patterns learned, the more developed the coordinative skills. As coordination improves, faster tempos result allowing for muscle development and endurance. A perfect breakdown implies perfect precision, so to obtain the goal of a perfect breakdown one's precision must improve. The chief duty of any percussionist is to keep time. Nothing improves timing better than applying a constant rate of acceleration/deceleration to a sticking pattern. Keeping time by watching a conductor is simple by comparison.
Drum rudiments help so much with developing better percussive skills that the
lack of interest among percussionists to train with rudiments and rudimental
breakdowns is nothing short of amazing.
The National Association of Rudimental Drummers (N.A.R.D.) standardized the rudiments in 1933. NARD spread the gospel by using a portion of the membership fee to print up rudiment sheets and disseminate them to band teachers, judges, and students. NARD also sponsored clinics to schools and drum corps to get the word out. William F. Ludwig once remarked that American drummers were the best in the world because while other countries neglected rudiments, American drummers were studying them, using them at contests, improving their skills with rudiments. He said one German told him, "We play by note, when the note is there we hit it, never mind which hand." Four of the original thirteen founders of NARD were prominent leading symphony percussionists, three were popular theater drummers, and one was a studio drummer. "Stick Control", voted best drum book of all time in a poll conducted by Modern Drummer, was written by NARD founder George Lawrence Stone, instructor of Joe Morello.
Membership into NARD was gained by demonstrating rudimental competence; prospective
members had to open and close the Thirteen Essential Drum Rudiments. This was
perhaps the foremost way for promoting rudiments, as drummers actively sought
to prove their skills and share in a brotherhood devoted to promoting rudimental
drumming.
NARD folded in 1978, with nearly ten thousand members. Since that time rudiments
have slipped in importance among the schools, symphonies, and worse of all,
from drum corps. Today you see very few contests where any rudimental breakdown
is required, and rudiments themselves are seldomly used in the arrangements
of field music. The
decline of rudimental drumming in drum corps over the last two decades can be
attributed to watered down arrangements with little rudimental variations.
In 1985 the Percussive Arts Society (PAS) revised and updated the rudiments,
reducing NARD's Thirteen Essential rudiments to a more basic 7. They also expanded
the complete rudiment list from 26 to 40, adding some of the more popular rudiments
like the Inverted Flam Tap and some of the Swiss rudiments, such as Swiss Army
Triplets. Unfortunately PAS does not promote rudiments by offering a membership
test, nor do they highlight the importance of learning rudiments or rudimental
breakdowns. Despite the revision of the rudiment list by PAS in 1985, rudiments
have continued to decline in usage in field music arrangements and in individual
competitions.
It is time to bring rudiments back into the consciousness of drummers, band
teachers, drum corps instructors, and judges. It is time for people to realize
the progress American drummers made during the first three quarters of the 20th
century was due to the spread of rudimental drumming. It is time for rudimental
drumming to become the chief training tool used by all students of percussion;
helping them gain endurance, precision, timing, and coordinative skills required
to become more effective percussionists and musicians. Rudimental drumming shaped
this nation, as a method for communicating commands from the generals to the
troops in the Revolutionary War, to shaping many leading symphony percussionists
and dance band drummers. It's time to stop the damaging
trend of the dilution of rudimental drumming field arrangements and to restart
the positive trend of demanding rudimental breakdowns in contests as a measure
of percussive skills.
