I’ve been practicing Alan Dawson’s Rudimental Ritual for many years and return to it often. Recently I heard about Smitty’s Rudiment Ritual Warm-Up on Jon McCaslin’s interview with Thomas Wendt and Eric Binder (worth checking out).
I can’t believe that was my first time hearing about it! I figured that a quick search on Google would turn up a PDF and I’d have something new to practice. I was wrong.
I became obsessed with finding it and stayed up way too late scouring the internet. I ended up reaching out to other jazz drummers to see if anyone had a copy they’d be willing to share. When I woke up the next morning I had a PDF in my email from a drummer who I have never met. The community of drummers is amazing!
I’ve since sent Mr. Smith a message on Instagram asking if I could purchase a copy directly from him or send him some money for his work. I haven’t heard back, so if anyone is in contact with him please send him my way.
As much as I’d love to share the PDF here, without Smitty’s permission I don’t feel comfortable doing that. I hope he shares it more widely someday.
I’m still digging into Smitty’s ritual and taking it line by line. All of the ideas flow nicely and there are many challenging sections that have been fun to work up to speed.
In addition to the snare drum version, I also discovered a version for drumset that Karl Miklin has developed. It’s really fun and I usually play a page from it each day to get my shoulders and spine loosened up. There’s a link to download it on his YouTube video page.
Happy practicing!