A Drummer’s Easy Guide to Sticking (With Videos)

‘Sticking’ in drumming is essentially patterns that you play with your right and left hand. Practicing these patterns can improve your speed, creativity, and technical ability on the drums.

Many drummers ‘stick’ in a comfort zone of some very basic patterns. After you see the videos below, you’re going to want to change that pretty soon!

How do beginner drummers play fills? Often simply just R L R L R L sticking patterns from highest tom to lowest.

While there’s nothing wrong with this, overdoing it can cause it to become boring, standard, and doesn’t leave much room for inventiveness or interesting rhythms.

Before we get into sticking in more detail, let’s have a look at this fantastic video by Gavin Harrison on Drumeo which shows just how much that simply learning one sticking pattern can add to your drumming skills.

The take-home lesson from this: sticking patterns and rudiments are not just for snare drummers!

What’s the Point of Sticking?

Sticking patterns are essentially some of the most important building blocks that help us express ourselves as drummers. R means right hand and L means left hand. The letters tell you which hand plays each stroke; the note values and rests tell you when it happens, while accents tell you which notes to emphasize.

That’s why drum teachers stress the importance of learning and practicing rudiments, which make up the standard sticking patterns for drummers.

Learning and practicing many great sticking patterns will make them strong in your muscle memory. Once you get to this level, you can then start to apply them to the drum set in really interesting ways.

For example, in Gavin Harrison’s video above, he shows a lovely 5 note grouping RLRRL applied to the drum set. Keep those five strokes in order when you move between drums: changing the surfaces changes the orchestration without changing the sticking.

Simply moving these from a 16th-note groove into a triplet groove changes the feel of the sticking pattern. A five-note group does not have to fit neatly into one beat: if you keep repeating it over sixteenth notes in 4/4, its starting point moves through the bar. Count the quarter-note pulse while you play so you can still land the next downbeat. Although this might initially be tough for a beginner, once you put a bit of practice into it, you will be astounded at the progress you will make.

Your Favorite Sticking Patterns

Drummers often revert to their favorite sticking patterns when on the drum set. These will usually be ones that they are very comfortable with and are particularly comfortable while coordinating their hands and feet.

There are pros and cons to this. When I started out playing drums many years ago… I quickly got strong on the double-stroke roll (RRLL) or (LLRR), I started heavily using this during my drum fills. I thought this sounded great, but I completely neglected improving my single stroke rolls and other great sticking patterns.

By staying in your comfort zone of sticking patterns you may also be furthering the imbalance between your strong and weak hand, which leads on to our next section.

Natural vs Alternate Sticking Patterns

The terms below describe two ways of organizing these examples. They do not divide every possible sticking into two universal categories:

Natural sticking patterns here restart each group with the same hand, such as RRL repeated. Both hands still play; the right hand simply leads each three-note group.

Alternate sticking patterns in the example use alternating single strokes, so the lead changes from right to left with each three-note group. This gives both hands practice playing the group’s first accent.

For example, in triplets:

Natural Sticking: RRL RRL RRL RRL

vs

Alternate Sticking: RLR LRL RLR LRL

Natural sticking patterns are very useful on the drum set and they can sound very even and solid. Repeating the same sticking and accent pattern can make it easier to practice a consistent sound, but even timing and volume still need attention. Play RRL quietly first, then accent only the first stroke of each group without making the other two notes louder.

Alternate sticking patterns give your weak hand an even amount of action. This really comes into play when playing accents. For example, if you accent the first note of each triplet, the differences will look like this:

Natural Sticking: RRL RRL RRL RRL

vs

Alternate Sticking: RLR LRL RLR LRL

You don’t necessarily need to play alternate sticking on your drum set very often, but it may be useful to either practice them OR put a lot of effort into leading your natural sticking patterns with your weak hand.

For example, If your weak hand is your left hand, then you could also practice LLR LLR LLR LLR in this case.

Rudiments

The Percussive Arts Society recognizes 40 International Drum Rudiments. There were originally 26, but the list was extended by a further 14 by the Percussive Arts Society in 1984. There are also countless other ‘hybrid’ patterns based on these.

If you play the drum set, you don’t necessarily need to learn all of these patterns. Start with some of the basics and get great at applying it to the drum set.

For example, it’s better to be strong on 7 essential drum rudiments rather than just skim the surface of all 40.

How should you learn to play the rudiments?

A practice pad is a great option. It can help you hone in on the timing and velocity of each of your drum strokes. Practice pads can be a little bouncy and therefore might not accurately replicate the feeling of playing on a deeper drum (e.g. on a floor tom), however, they are still fantastic at training your muscle memory to learn these sticking patterns.

They can also be much quieter than acoustic drums, which is useful in a busy neighborhood. Pad strikes still make impact noise, so check what is audible through the floor or wall before assuming late-night practice will be unobtrusive.

When doing so, make sure to practice with a metronome. Get great timing and learn new sticking patterns. That’s a very productive practice session!

Summary

Sticking patterns are very important! If you play the drums, make sure to keep your hand and feet consistent. Always work on your weak hand as well as your strong hand too, so that it continues being balanced.

This article compares two useful approaches to sticking: repeated same-lead groups and alternating strokes. There are many other combinations, including the rudiments and hybrid patterns mentioned above.

In the natural-sticking example, the same hand begins each group; it does not play every note. In the alternate-sticking triplets, continuous RLRL strokes make each hand take a turn leading. Practice both the printed example and its mirror image.

Don’t neglect any of the 40 snare drum rudiments and practice them by using a practice pad or metronome. You can begin with a few basics and learn them well, then add others as the music calls for them. Try four bars on the pad followed by the same pattern around the kit, keeping the pulse and accents steady.

Don’t let your drumming plateau into a comfort zone. Make a conscious effort to put time into practicing new sticking patterns.