Single Stroke Seven

Learn How To Play The Single Stroke Seven Drum Rudiment!

In this 40 drum rudiments free drum lesson, you’ll get to learn how to play the single stroke seven. Lionel Duperron also teaches how to apply the single stroke seven to the drum set through a couple of drum beats and drum fills. If you’re brand new to the 40 drum rudiments take a look at the single stroke roll before attempting to learn this one.

If you’re a more seasoned drummer, we encourage you to watch the free drum lesson on the single stroke four, in addition to the single stroke roll. Brushing up on those two drum rudiments and learning how to apply them to drum beats and drum fills, will make it that much easier to master the material in this lesson. You can use the lessons on those two drum rudiments to get inspired on how to use them in new and creative ways.

The single stroke seven builds on the single stroke roll and the single stroke four drum rudiments. Instead of having a consecutive stream (roll) of alternating strokes like on the single stroke roll, there are seven consecutive single strokes - hence the name single stroke seven. The single stroke seven is played in triplets, just like the single stroke four - 1 trip let 2 trip let 3. Think of this pattern as a single stroke four with three extra triplets added in. All strokes should sound the same. Practice the single stroke seven with both left hand and right hand leading.

The exercise below is a simple way of getting you to use the single stroke seven within your drum beats. Start by playing the seven stroke roll on the hi-hat. Once you feel comfortable with that, move the seventh stroke to the snare drum. Then, add the bass drum on count 1 and the floor tom on count 4. If you want to be further challenged here experiment with different bass drums patterns, different dynamics, add some open hi-hats, or just move one of the hands to other surfaces on the drum set.

Exercise #2 is a fine example of how to use some of the tips we discussed on the previous pattern, for coming up with a new drum beat from one you already know how to play. For this drum beat, Lionel Duperron takes exercise #1 and orchestrates the same rhythmic pattern on different instruments.

Instead of having the initial six strokes of the seven stroke roll on the hi-hat, Lionel spreads them between the hi-hat and the bow of the ride. Then on count 4, he plays the bell of the ride instead of the floor tom.

The seven stroke roll is played between counts 1 and 3 on the next exercise. The transition between hi-tom and mid-tom is the main challenge you’ll find in this exercise, if you play it leading with your right hand. Taking a look at the sheet music below, you can see that the leading hand switches as you move from one tom to the other. As you go from the hi-tom to the mid-tom you’ll have to move the right hand out of the way fast enough to let your left hand hit count 2 on the mid-tom. If you don’t, you may end up clicking your sticks or worst, your own hand.

To work around this issue practice slowly at first. As you get comfortable making a clean transition between the two drums, increase the speed on your metronome. Playing this drum fill leading with the left hand is also a great solution for this problem, and a cool way to work on your left hand strength and coordination.

This next drum fill comes to show the importance of practicing drum rudiments with both right hand and left hand leading. Here, you’ll be leading with your left hand. Make sure you have the pattern well memorized before adding a metronome to the mix. Once the pattern is happening, add the metronome and work on having consistently spaced and sounding strokes. This is a great workout for your weaker hand.

The single stroke roll, the single stroke four and the single stroke seven are single stroke based drum rudiments. By practicing any of these drum rudiments you’ll be working on your ability to play alternating single strokes. Thus, once you’re done with this free drum lesson, you can move on to further expand your knowledge of the 40 drum rudiments by learning how to play a new type of stroke. We encourage you to take on the double stroke roll.

Single Stroke Rudiments
Single Stroke Roll	Single Stroke Four	Single Stroke Seven