The Rudimental Ritual (160 bpm) - "Slow Version"

A transcription of Alan Dawson’s famous Rudimental Ritual based on John Ramsay’s excellent book, The Drummer’s Complete Vocabulary (a.co/0iYDpxQ). This version has been modified to more closely match the audio tracks that are included on the CD that accompanies the book. The entire ritual is to be played over a bossa nova foot ostinato.
This is one of my all-time-favorite drum kit exercises, and it took me a long time to play it all the way through. I made these videos because the CD tracks are too fast, and it’s very difficult to flip through all 13 pages while practicing. Special thanks to my drum instructor, Jake Evans, for introducing me to The Rudimental Ritual and for checking my work.
The playlist includes seven tempos from 100 bpm to 220 bpm to make it easier to learn and practice the ritual. For reference, the “slow version” played by John Ramsay on the CD is around 160 bpm. The “fast version” played by Alan Dawson is around 220 bpm.
The transcription and video was made using Sibelius (www.sibelius.com) from Avid. The audio track was exported as MIDI from Sibelius and edited using Logic Pro X. The drum sounds are from Superior Drummer 3 (www.toontrack.com/product/sup...) by Toontrack and were selected because their crisp, fast attack makes it easier to hear the individual strokes. The final video was created with Adobe Premiere Pro.
Enjoy!

[@JulianFernandez]

thanks so much for taking the time to make this and share it!

[@MichaelDSwanson]

You bet! Enjoy.

[@1991Drumkiller]

I started working on the ritual back in 2015, and have been using your videos every single day for the past year. 365 thank you's (with more to come) for all the work that went into putting this up. It means a lot to me and to the entire drumming community. You have achieved super hero status, just thought you should know that.

[@MichaelDSwanson]

Thank you so much for taking the time to reply, James. It's comments like yours that make it all worthwhile. I'm happy to hear that it has been a useful resource!

[@skylarbuttecali7118]

I second this! Thank you so much for posting these videos.

[@miguelees]

great thanks for this ! now i got to pratice you made so much easier

[@reverendobrown75]

Thank you awesome work! i've been playing the ritual from 1998 when my teacher at that time Roberto Faenzi showed me the Alan Dawson method...great exercise and thank you again for the play along

[@Teriyakiwarri0r]

It’s all fun and games until you get to the final flam section

[@alastairbarbour7847]

This is amazing!! thanks so much for taking time to get this right. The cd is waaaay to fast for me. Now... i start a year long project trying to play this daily.

[@salvamadrid5088]

4:48

[@drumbumunited]

Just been enlightened to this masterpiece myself ! This will be HUGELY beneficial to me.. Without meaning to sound un-grateful... would it be at all possible to get the audio WITHOUT the foot pattern. I'm learning it with a drumming mate with a different obstinato. No probs if not - can of course ignore what's already there. Cheers Michael

[@MichaelDSwanson]

Here you go, Tom. I made audio versions without the foot pattern, both with and without a click. Like the UA-cam videos, they have a range of tempos. Enjoy! www.dropbox.com/s/joinkbzx139ropp/Rudimental_Ritual_No_Foot_Pattern_Optional_Click.zip?dl=0

[@drumbumunited]

Fantastic ! Thanks so much Michael

[@yonimushermusic]

Wow thank you! This is amazing that you took the time to do this!​@@MichaelDSwanson

[@josephgraves5702]

Day 743 of doing this tempo

[@MichaelDSwanson]

Impressive!

[@andyweis5194]

Double Drag is not played correctly, 5 stroke roll line not written correctly, Didn't play last 2 notes of Swiss triplet 2nd time around on both R and L lead, Last part of flam 5 stroke line not written correctly. That's as far as I got and can do the rest later if you'd like. Is that you playing or a drum machine?

[@MichaelDSwanson]

Thanks, Andy. I noticed that the book is notated incorrectly in some parts (at least based on the CD recording), and I tried to reconcile that with what I heard, realizing that I might not get everything 100%. I'll certainly review your comments. You might have missed it in the description, but the notes were entered directly into Sibelius (by Avid) and exported as MIDI. The feel is a bit robotic, but I wanted a solid reference, since the timing was what I struggled with the most. If you'd like to continue chatting, feel free to contact me via my blog...I'd love to get this right: blog.mikeswanson.com/contact