The single drag tap expands on the drag ruff with one added "tap" stroke (just as the title indicates). This drum rudiment is perfect for creative drum fills, unique solo patterns, or for just improving the timing and control of your drag ruffs. No matter what you end up using it for, it's another important rudiment that you will definately want to learn. Here is the single drag tap written out in drum notation:
It is absolutely essential that you learn to play the drag ruff before the single drag tap. If you are already able to play the drag, this rudiment will be fairly simple to develop. As you can see above, it starts with a right handed drag followed by a left handed stroke. Then that pattern is repeated with left handed lead. That's all there is to it. Put it all together, and you have the complete single drag tap!
Here is a simple drum beat that incorporates the single drag tap on the hi-hats:
Exercise three includes the single drag tap in a fill around the snare and tom-toms:
Once you have learned the single drag tap, you can move on to the double drag tap.
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