Learn to Play the Drum
A Beginner's Guide to Rudimental Drumming
If the fife is the voice of a fife and drum corps, the drum is its heartbeat. Fife and drum drumming is rooted in a tradition called rudimental drumming — a system of fundamental stick patterns that originated with military field musicians centuries ago. These patterns, called rudiments, are the building blocks of everything you'll play.
This guide will introduce you to the instruments, the grip, the essential rudiments, and how to start practicing. No drumming experience is required. If you can tap your hands on a table in rhythm, you can learn to drum.
The Instruments
A fife and drum corps uses two types of drums: the snare drum and the bass drum. Both are rope-tension drums, meaning the heads are tightened by a rope that zigzags between the top and bottom hoops. Leather loops called "ears" slide along the rope to adjust tension. This is the oldest style of drum construction and it produces a distinctive, open sound that's different from modern drums.
The snare drum hangs from a sling over your shoulder and sits against your hip at roughly a 30–45 degree angle. Gut or nylon snares stretched across the bottom head give it the characteristic "buzzy" rattle. The bass drum hangs from a harness and is struck with large felt-tipped mallets. Most beginners start on snare, but bass drum is also a great entry point — the parts are simpler and you're playing from day one.
You don't need to buy a drum to start. Almost every corps owns drums that members share. What you'll want is a practice pad (a rubber pad mounted on a stand or board, $20–40) and a pair of drumsticks ($15–30). For fife and drum style, look for sticks that are slightly heavier than standard kit sticks — you're playing outdoors on larger drums and need the extra weight. Cooperman makes sticks specifically designed for rope-tension drums.
How to Hold the Sticks
Fife and drum drumming traditionally uses what's called matched grip — both hands hold the sticks the same way. (Some drummers in the Ancient tradition use traditional grip, where the left hand holds the stick differently, but matched grip is more common for beginners and increasingly standard.)
To hold the stick: rest it across your palm at the base of your fingers, about one-third of the way from the butt end. Wrap your index finger and thumb around the stick to form a fulcrum — this is your pivot point. The remaining fingers curl loosely around the stick for control. The grip should be firm enough that the stick doesn't fly out of your hand, but relaxed enough that the stick can bounce freely. Think of holding a bird: tight enough that it can't escape, loose enough that you don't crush it.
Your wrists do most of the work, not your arms. The motion is a rotation of the wrist, with the stick pivoting at the fulcrum between your thumb and index finger. Keep your forearms relatively still. Practice dropping the stick from about six inches above the pad and letting it bounce back up naturally. That rebound is your friend — you're guiding the stick, not forcing every stroke.
The Essential Rudiments
There are 40 internationally recognized drum rudiments, but you only need a handful to get started. These four will cover the vast majority of what a beginning corps drummer plays:
1. Single Stroke Roll
R L R L R L R L
Alternating strokes: right, left, right, left. This is the most basic pattern in drumming. The challenge is playing each stroke at exactly the same volume and spacing. Start slowly — painfully slowly — with a metronome, and focus on making every stroke sound identical. Speed will come.
2. Double Stroke Roll
RR LL RR LL RR LL
Two strokes per hand. This is the foundation of the "long roll" — the sustained drum roll you hear in virtually every fife and drum performance. The key is controlling the second stroke. At slow speeds, you play two distinct wrist strokes per hand. As speed increases, you'll use the stick's natural rebound off the head to produce the second stroke. Mastering the double stroke roll unlocks most of the more advanced rudiments.
3. The Flam
lR rL lR rL
A grace note (soft tap) immediately followed by a primary stroke (louder tap) with the other hand. The two strokes land almost simultaneously but not quite — there's a tiny gap that gives the flam its characteristic thick, broad sound. Flams appear constantly in fife and drum music.
4. The Paradiddle
R L R R L R L L
A four-note pattern that combines single and double strokes and teaches your hands to work independently. It's also your first taste of how rudiments combine into musical phrases. Once you can play clean paradiddles at a moderate tempo, you've built a solid technical foundation.
Practice each rudiment on a pad with a metronome. Start at 60 BPM. When you can play the pattern cleanly and evenly for two minutes straight without mistakes, increase the tempo by 5 BPM. This slow, patient approach builds the muscle memory and stick control that make everything else possible.
The Seven-Stroke Roll
Once you've got your double stroke roll feeling comfortable, learn the seven-stroke roll. It's the rudiment that starts nearly every fife and drum tune and appears within the body of most pieces. The pattern is three double strokes followed by an accented single: RR LL RR L (or LL RR LL R, alternating).
In fife and drum music, the seven-stroke roll often serves as a pickup — the anacrusis that sets the tempo before the melody begins. Getting this rudiment clean and consistent is one of the first major milestones for a fife and drum corps drummer.
Your First Beats
A "street beat" is a simple drum pattern played during parade marches. Your corps will have its own, but most follow a similar structure: a basic march rhythm in 2/4 or 6/8 time using combinations of single strokes, flams, and rolls. This is what you'll play during parades while the fifers carry the melody.
Start by learning whatever your corps uses as their standard march. If you're practicing on your own, search for "fife and drum street beat" online — the Treasure Coast Fife and Drum Corps has free video lessons that walk through a basic street beat step by step. Check our resources page for the link.
Reading drum notation is simpler than reading fife music because you're only dealing with rhythm, not pitch. Each note on the staff tells you when to hit and with which hand. Rudiment notation uses R and L to indicate sticking. Accented notes (played louder) are marked with a ">" symbol above them. That's most of what you need to know to read a basic drum part.
Practice Tips
Use a practice pad, not a pillow or a table. A practice pad gives you realistic rebound that mimics a drum head. Practicing on a dead surface (like a pillow) trains bad habits — you'll fight the rebound when you move to an actual drum.
Always use a metronome. Rudimental drumming lives or dies on timing. A free metronome app is fine. Set it to a comfortable tempo and don't increase speed until the pattern is perfectly clean and even at the current tempo.
Practice leading with your weak hand. If you're right-handed, start every rudiment with your left hand half the time. Balanced hands are essential in rudimental drumming, and it's much easier to build this habit early than to fix it later.
Start with 15–20 minutes of focused practice daily. Pad work can be done anywhere — on the couch watching TV, at your desk during a break. Consistency matters far more than marathon sessions.
A Note on Bass Drum
If snare feels intimidating, consider starting on bass drum. The parts are less technically demanding, you're playing from the first rehearsal, and you're contributing to the corps sound immediately. Bass drumming has its own artistry — controlling dynamics, keeping rock-solid time for the entire corps, and adding accents that drive the music forward. Many excellent snare drummers started on bass.
Next Steps
Find a corps. Drumming is a social instrument, and the feedback loop of playing with other drummers and fifers accelerates your learning dramatically. Search our corps directory, reach out, and show up to a rehearsal. Every corps we know welcomes beginners.
From here, you'll want to expand your rudiment vocabulary (the five-stroke roll, flam accent, flam paradiddle, drag, and ratamacue are the next tier), learn to read more complex notation, and start memorizing corps tunes. We'll cover all of this in future guides.