How to Play a 5 Stroke Roll

A five stroke roll is played like this RRLLR or LLRRL. Take a few minutes and watch my video lesson on how to play the 5 stroke roll before you go further into the lesson. Watching it actually played out and hearing the sound might make the following musical notation and exercises easier to understand. […]

How to Play Swiss Triplets

Swiss Triplets sound the same as a Flam Accent but they utilize a different sticking. Flam Accents are lRLR rLRL and Swiss Triplets are lRRL lRRL Here’s a Video Lesson on How to Play Swiss Triplets Here’s what Swiss Triplets look like in musical notation Let’s take a look at the sticking of the Swiss […]

How to Play a Flam Accent

The Flam Accent is a very important rudiment to practice because it works your triplet feel, your double sticking and your flams. Take a look at this video and I’ll go over the flam accent for you. In musical notation, the flam accent looks like this: The first thing to do is to play a […]

How to Play the Djembe: Learn the Basics

The West African Djembe has three basic sounds. In this lesson Aldo Mazza, founder and educator with KoSa Music  and member of the percussion ensemble Repercussion explains the techniques necessary to play this amazing hand drum. He’ll also show us how to play a simple Casa Rhythm on the Djembe. In this video, Aldo Mazza […]

How to Play the Vibraphone: Introduction and Dampening

First things first, what is a vibraphone? I used to be surprised when someone would ask me what a vibraphone was, but then I realized that while people might have heard of the instrument not many people have had the opportunity to see one up close let alone play on one. And I’m not talking […]

How to Develop Finger Technique for Snare Drum

Finger technique or finger control of the snare drum stick is an important skill for every percussionist to practice. It is a necessary technique to have for playing fast single strokes, playing quietly as well as general playing all around. Practice playing the exercise 8 on a hand where you play 8 strokes with your […]

How to Play Measured Rolls

A Measured roll is a way of keeping track of the beat that you are playing when you are rolling and depending on the tempo you can roll in either a duple or a triple subdivision. Watch this Video Lesson on How to Play Measured Rolls This is how to think of playing duple subdivision: […]