Rudiments in 5/8

A page of snare drum rudiment practice phrases, written in 5/8, in a 3+2 phrasing. Keep this with your copy of Haskell Harr (book 2) or Rudimental Swing Solos.

These can all be played at normal rudimental tempos— quarter note = 105-126. You'll probably have to set your metronome to give you 8th notes at 210-252 bpm for that. Or you can set it to give you downbeats only, at 21-25 bpm. The closed 7 stroke rolls are played with a 16th note triplet pulsation; the other closed rolls are played with a 16th note pulsation.

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Odd meter Harr: flamcues in 5/8

Another Haskell Harr etude transcribed into 5/8, this time one of the flamacue studies on p. 79 of book 2— I only use book 2:

As in the original, the number 5 or 7 next to a roll indicates the type of roll— 5-stroke (with a 16th note pulsation) or 7-stroke (with a 16th note triplet pulsation). Set your metronome to click 8th notes, or the first and third 8th note of each measure, or the 1 of each measure.

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Odd meter Harr: flamadiddle study in 5/8

I've said before, I practice out of Haskell Harr's Drum Method a lot. It's the stodgiest traditional rudimental snare drum book available this side of the Moeller book, but it uses accurate modern notation— many books of its era do not. It's a part of the drumming literature many, many great drummers have played through at one time or another— like Elvin Jones and Terry Bozzio— and most importantly, it really conditions my hands for real-world playing— better than any other book I've encountered. I don't know why— I don't use a whole lot of rudiments in my actual playing.

To continue: I also play out of Mitchell Peters's Odd Meter Rudimental Studies, which contains a number of fairly traditional but sophisticated pieces in a very Harr-like vein. It seems like a natural enough things to adapt the actual Harr etudes into odd meters, too. So here's the first major study in book 2 of Haskell Harr's method, a flamadiddle study, transcribed into 5/8:

It's an easy piece, with a nice little waltz-like lilt to it. Standard tempo for pieces like this is around quarter note = 100-120; you'll want to push it up to around 130. Harr makes a practice of defining his rolls— the little numeral 7 at the beginning indicates that it's a 7-stroke roll. You'll play that with a 16th note triplet pulsation. More of these coming!

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