Now available!

A Field Guide to 50 Drum Rudiments is a detailed method for learning and actually understanding the art of rudimental drumming, presented in 134 pages at 8.5″x11″ paperback format with available audio examples. Find it at Ingram for a slight discount or at Amazon or Barnes and Noble or several other popular online retailers. International buyers, check your local Amazon site for a better experience. Also available as a Kindle ebook.

Each of the 50 main chapters presents not only the standard notation for a given rudiment, but also a rhythmic interpretation, counting numbers and syllables, the necessary basic strokes, notation in alternative time signatures or rhythms, single hand breakdowns, buildup exercises in different note denominations, text descriptions and background, and other tools to really drive home how the rudiment functions and where it can be applied. Includes all 26 NARD rudiments, all 40 PAS rudiments, a selection of common Hybrid rudiments, and a few non-standard or slightly less common rudiments that are very much worth knowing. In all, there are several more than 50 distinct rudiments in here, despite only having a nominal 50 chapters. Further, the Field Guide has discussions on grace notes, the numbered rolls, tremolo slash notation, the four basic strokes, hybrid rudiments, common snare drumming terminology, and more…

Other books like this exist, but many of the best examples are old enough that they contain only the NARD 26 rudiments. Many modern, and even popular, rudiment books give only the most cursory explanation of any given rudiment and then launch into etudes with no additional instruction. These books are good for practice material, but do a poor job of preparing the user for examples that fall outside of the simplest and most obvious interpretation of the rudiments. They often fail to go beyond the exact notation given on the PAS 40 sheet and, amazingly, many rudiment books routinely lack even the most basic counting or sticking. They leave beginners in a state of confusion. The Field Guide is here to fix that. It has been written by myself and James A. Musser specifically to be used by drummers of any experience level, but especially those with little to no rudimental drumming background. As of 2025, we have a combined 84 years of practical drumming experience, with over 40 years of private lesson teaching experience, and we have drawn on this vast reserve to make sure that you walk away from the Guide with real life skills and theoretical understanding that you can take to any other facet of drumming from drum kit to concert percussion and anywhere else you require.

Of course, I already have Rudimental Grand Tour, Encyclopedia Rudimentia, and Italian Rudimental Drumming out, so you could be forgiven for thinking “why ANOTHER rudiment book?” All of those other rudiment books assume a basic level of competency with rudimental drumming. They show you what exists (lots of stuff exists out there! So much rudiment stuff…) but those previous books do not spend much time on how or why that rudimental variety exists or how to go about learning it from the beginning. Space is a real concern in any book. No single book could do it all. The Field Guide fills in the how and the why while building basic skills to help beginners get into rudimental drumming from scratch and helping intermediates gain confidence and context.