The drag tap can be though of as an extension of the straight drag rudiment that is going to involve adding in an extra note between the existing dragged notes. That means the rudiment will be a lot quicker and there will be some very tricky quick oddly placed doubles around the grace note. Whilst this rudiment is quite tough, it will open up some really interesting decorative options for your fills and grooves whilst developing your hand control.
On this page you are going to be playing the rudiment as quavers and semi quavers, various stickings are then going to be applied to this rhythm. These multiple versions of the rudiment are all shown below with a note on what sticking has been applied above each.
Exercise 1
A Drag Tap with standard sticking as quavers.
Exercise 2
A Drag Tap in reversed sticking as quavers.
Exercise 3
A Drag Tap in alternate sticking as quavers.
Exercise 4
A Drag Tap in standard sticking as semi quavers.
Exercise 5
A Drag Tap in reversed sticking as semi quavers.
Exercise 6
A Drag Tap in alternate sticking as semi quavers.
TASK
- Using the 2 minute rule, get all 6 exercises up to a tempo of 120bpm.
- Experiment with orchestrating the rudiment.
- Experiment with adding feet to the rudiment.
- Experiment with applying the rudiment to fills.
