Hello fellow MD drummers, Kofi Baker here. As some of you may know, I am the son of a very famous drummer known as Ginger.

The first lesson with my dad that I can remember was him showing me how to play a paradiddle then leaving the room and telling me to keep playing it until he came back. He forgot about me and came back two hours later to me crying because I did what he said, and my hands were numb by then. Anyway, it got me to understand how important it is to practice your rudiments.

A lot of my dad’s and my playing is based around rudiments. They are the foundation of drumming. If you get bored, just make them your own by playing them different ways and putting them on different drums and cymbals. You can also start them in different places, like on parts of the 1/4 note—for example, the 1, then 1-e, then 1-&, then 1-a, like in the video below. It’s the first thing my dad taught me on the drumkit. This way you can practice them in different ways and also make beats out of them. Most importantly, have fun.

I have more examples in my book, The Forgotten Foot, which emphasizes the importance of using your left foot in your playing. You can find that on my website at www.kofibaker.com.

Thanks for letting me check in with you all. Hope to see you out at a show.

 

Watch “Paradiddles 1, 2, 3, and 4” here: