PAS #31 · Drag rudiments
Drag
grace Lgrace LR grace Rgrace RL — 2 main strokes, 4 grace notes over 2 beats in eighth notes (quavers), 2 accents. Loop it from 50 BPM and build to 76.
R = right hand · L = left · small raised letters are grace notes · > = accent. The count runs along the bottom.
Next moves
What the drag is
Read it, hear it, and slow it down until it is even.
Two quiet grace notes from one hand immediately before a main stroke from the other — a flam with an extra grace note, also called a half drag or a ruff. The two grace notes are a double stroke played very close and very low, so they crush into the main note instead of sounding as separate sixteenths. It is the gateway to the whole drag family, and getting the two graces even is what makes every ratamacue afterwards possible.
How to practice it
- The two grace notes are one very low, very fast double stroke — not two separate taps. Keep the stick within an inch of the head.
- They should crush into the main note. If you can count them as sixteenths they are too slow and too loud.
- Play the main stroke exactly on the beat and let the graces fall before it. Beginners put the first grace note on the beat, which makes everything late.
- Alternate: drag into a right-hand stroke, then into a left-hand stroke, and keep both sides identical.
Where it leads
The drag belongs to the drag rudiments family, and it feeds directly into the single and double drag taps, Lesson 25, the drag paradiddles and all three ratamacues. Get it even at a slow tempo before you move on — every rudiment built on top of it inherits whatever unevenness you leave here.
Reading the notation above
Both hands play the snare drum, so every notehead sits in the third space of the staff and the sticking cells underneath tell you which hand plays which note, with the count under every stroke. Capital letters are full strokes; small raised letters are grace notes. The small noteheads with a slash through the stem are the grace notes of the ornament — they are played almost simultaneously with the note that follows, not as separate beats. The marks above the staff are accents: hit those notes harder. Full details in the drum notation guide.
Tempo ladder
Tap a rung to set the speed. Play 8 clean loops before moving up.
More drag rudiments
Questions
What is the sticking for the drag?
grace Lgrace LR grace Rgrace RL. R = right hand, L = left hand; the small raised letters are grace notes, played softly just before the main stroke by the other hand.
How fast should I play it?
Start slow enough that every stroke is even — around 50 BPM — then go up 4–5 BPM at a time. 76 BPM is a good first target.
How is the drag written in notation?
On the snare line: the third space of the drum staff (stave), stems up, as eighth notes (quavers), with an accent mark (>) over the loud strokes, and grace notes drawn small just before their main note. The count runs under the sticking: 1 &.
Rudiment data last updated . Every diagram here, in the printable PDF and in the chart image comes from one dataset, so the paper and the screen cannot disagree.