R L R L R L R LSingle stroke
4/4 · 8th40–104 BPM
Backbeat Lab · practice room
Set the click, then play the grid
Rudiments, grooves and bench work for drum kit and hand percussion
96Working tempo
Set the click, then play the grid
One bar of sixteenths sits under this dial. Press anywhere on the panel to start the click and the grid follows the tempo you drag — nothing on this page filters the drills below, the dial only sets speed.
Drag the handle, or use the arrow keys
One bar · sixteenth-note grid · Paradiddle-Diddle at 100 BPM: Six Notes, Two Hands, Never the SameHit cells are ember, the cell under the click carries a frost ring
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Rudiment wall
Every rudiment, grouped by the tier it is practised at. Hit cells in each pad grid come straight from the pattern.Tier 1 · 40 BPM
Slow enough to hear both hands
R R L L R R L LDouble stroke
4/4 · 16th40–96 BPM
Tier 2 · 60 BPM
Where stroke types start mixing
R L R R L R L LParadiddle
4/4 · 16th60–126 BPM
R R L L RDouble stroke
4/4 · 16th60–120 BPM
Tier 3 · 80 BPM
Odd groupings and moving accents
R L R L R L RSingle stroke
4/4 · 16th80–160 BPM
R L R L R R L R L R L LParadiddle
4/4 · 16th80–132 BPM
Tier 4 · 100 BPM
Performance tempo, ornaments included
fR fL fR fLFlam
4/4 · 8th100–168 BPM
fL R L fR L RFlam
4/4 · 16th100–152 BPM
R L R R L LParadiddle
4/4 · 16th100–156 BPM
Grooves
Every groove- Linear Funk at 96 BPM: No Two Limbs at Once4/4 · 96 BPM · 16th
Linear drumming means exactly one voice at a time: kick, snare, hats and ghost notes are sequenced rather than stacked. The payoff is clarity — every 16th note
- 7/8 Groove at 108 BPM: Grouping It 2-2-3 So It Grooves7/8 · 108 BPM · 8th
Seven eight is not inherently strange music — it is only strange when it is counted as seven. Grouped 2-2-3 it becomes a limping groove with a kick, a snare and
- 12/8 Train Beat at 88 BPM: Four Beats, Each With Three12/8 · 88 BPM · triplet
A 12/8 train beat is a shuffle counted in four: each beat has three eighths, and the ride or hat plays all three with a slight accent on the first. Played at 88
- 6/8 Blues Shuffle at 92 BPM: Two Beats That Feel Like Three6/8 · 92 BPM · triplet
In 6/8 you have two dotted-quarter beats per bar, each dividing into three eighth notes. Counting on the dotted quarter — a two feel with a triplet subdivision
- Half-Time Shuffle at 78 BPM: Triplets With the Backbeat Halved4/4 · 78 BPM · triplet
The shuffle feel is triplet-based: the first and third notes of each triplet are played, the middle one is skipped. Half-time means the backbeat only lands twic
- One Drop at 74 BPM: Playing the Space Instead of the Beat4/4 · 74 BPM · 8th
In a one drop the kick and the snare land together on beat three, and beats one, two and four are left open. At 74 BPM that means roughly 810 milliseconds betwe
Tuning & gear
All bench notesStick numbers are a weight and diameter code, and the differences that matter are smaller than the marketing suggests but bigger than most beginners expect. A 5
Cymbals are the most expensive part of a kit and the easiest to buy badly, because weight and alloy decide how a cymbal behaves in a band long before brand or s
A poorly set up pedal makes a good foot sound late and a beginner sound hopeless, and the fix is usually four adjustments that take ten minutes. Beater angle, s
Most tuning advice tells you to 'tune the drum to a note', which is not useful unless you already know how to make the head even. The practical method is to tun