Drag rudiments · 40 of 40
Triple Ratamacue
Three drags, then home. The full mouthful.
llRllRllRLRLrrLrrLrrLRLR
Big letter = full stroke · filled = accent · small letters ahead = the grace hand. Notation reads as on a practice-pad sheet: accents marked >, slashed small notes are grace notes, z on the stem is a buzz. R rings higher than L, so you can hear the hands.
80BPM
What it is
Three drags, then the ratamacue. The longest drag rudiment, and a mouthful to say as well as to play.
How to practise it
- Build it up: one drag, then two, then three, keeping the ending identical.
- Slow. This one is about relaxed grace notes, not speed.
- Start where every stroke is deliberate, around 60–80 BPM, and only speed up when it feels boring. When it is clean, take it to the tempo trainer and let trainer mode climb from where you are.
Take it further
- Open in the rudiment trainer →Step through all 40, shuffle, and (for members) random practice that deals you a new one every few loops.
- Log the sessionNote the BPM you reached, and next time starts where this one stopped.
- Why rudiments matter, and where to startThe five to learn first, and how to get them off the pad and onto the kit.
More drag rudiments
Two grace notes, played as a quiet double, into a main stroke. Drags are the ornament of marching and concert snare playing.
- Drag (Ruff)Two grace notes into the main stroke. Crush them close.
- Single Drag TapDrag, then an accented tap on the other hand.
- Double Drag TapTwo drags into the accent — classic 6/8 street beat flavour.
- Lesson 25Drag, tap, accent — same lead every time. From Strube’s 1870 book.
- Single DragadiddleA paradiddle whose first note is itself a drag — same-hand graces.
- Drag Paradiddle #1Accent, then drag into a paradiddle.
- Drag Paradiddle #2Accent, then TWO drags into the paradiddle.
- Single RatamacueDrag into three notes, accent on the last. Say “rat-a-ma-cue”.
- Double RatamacueOne extra drag before the ratamacue.