The Joe Morello killer exercise

[k3ng]

I just recently watched the Joe Morello killer exercise on the site and went to give it a try.

To be honest, I've never been a fan of paradiddles, and have seldom practiced it, but using his approach, I managed to whip in my double strokes into my paradiddles and make em quite even, even at high speed. I was blasting through this at about 160bpm to begin with and took it up to 180 in the first practice session. I didn't find any problem.

But it was when I slowed down that the problem appears. When I do the paradiddle slower, using the double stroke bounce instead of wrist, it becomes more like a triplet with a double stroke.

R----L----RR----L----R----LL
1----&-----a------2----&-----a

like that.

My question is this, when doing the paradiddle slower, do you switch your approach into wrists or do you maintain the double stroke feel?

[Wegadrummer]

I maintain the double stroke feel, but at a certan tempo I change to the approach into the wrist.. Its all matter of how you use it in a fills etc.

[jayp]

k3ng, I'm still a beginner but from my experience when my paradiddles reach a slower tempo I switch to wrists and I have been asking myself the same question "should I be sticking to a doublestroke feel?"

[spw]

K3ng,
Watching the exercise the way Joe explained it, he kept the note value the same, in his example, all 16th notes.
The way you wrote it, it appears you have made the 16th into 32nds;
R----L----RR----L----R----LL
1----&-----a------2----&-----a

On the ' a' above it should be one strike instead of a double.

The question of wrist, i would thing the slower the tempo, the easier it is to do wrist strokes.

[rockitman]

You guys definitely want to switch to the wrists playing doubles at lower tempo. Get your whole hand feeling the double. Get the double in your body. Keep you fingers around the stick like Morello says "like holding a bird"
Playing it slower will require more control and developing the double at 160 to 180 bpm will
do nothing but make it harder in the long run.

Set up a click at about 60 bpm and try this excercise to get your strokes clean and even

RLRL RLRL RLRL RLRL
RRLL RRLL RRLL RRLL

Stretch first and drill it for 3 minute. Your doubles should sound just like your singles.
After a while you can reverse the drill and play it with the left hand first.

LRLR LRLR LRLR LRLR
LLRR LLRR LLRR LLRR

[jayp]

Thanks for that info, when i get home im going to work on doubles and paradiddles thanks.

[jazzin']

Any technical exercise you do...absolutely anything....should first be done at a very slow tempo. You should figure out all the minor details of the exercise and practice them to perfection.
This cannot be done at a high tempo, it is simply too hard to focus on what the hands are doing. What you've described is a classic example of moving too fast, too quickly.
To start out slow and really work it properly and to perfection at a slow tempo will be a lot faster in the long run than trying to get it up to speed quickly. You will get to a certain tempo and never be able to go any faster because the fundamental technique has flaws in it ie. double strokes.
Of course doing them at a slow tempo also causes problems as you've found out. Practice should be about working things out that you cannot do or do well. You've found one of these things. You should work on it. It will make you better than trying to do it fast.

[k3ng]

For the first two parts, the singles and the doubles, I don't have problems doing it slow. It's just the darn paradiddles. When I try to maintain the double stroke feel, the double stroke tends to go too fast, turning it into an 'almost triplet' like I showed.

But I get the point. I'll stick to the double stroke feel but it sure is tempting to change to wrists.
Any more input on this?

[Babui]

Have you tried counting out loud? Counting "paradiddle, paradiddle....." helps as well.

[jazzin']

I would suggest that while you keep doing your doubles and singles, it is the problem of putting those two together that creates the problem.
When you do a double or single stroke roll you wrist and fingers have one continuous action to perform. When doing a paradiddle it is a constant change from a two singles to two doubles in a very quick succession. So you have to slow down the paradiddle and break it into the problem area. Is it the actual doubles? Or is it the conversion from single to double? This is generally the problem area.
If you practice this next bit slow, I promise you will have a good solid paradiddle at any tempo.
Take the paradiddle motion R L R R L R L L, say for the moment that we're doing it in eighth notes. So that would be 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 +. Just the right hand is 1 2 + (3) + and the left is (1) + (2) 3 4 +. Practice each hand seperately to a metronome counting out loud (you have to count out loud). Try doing four bars each hand continuously or if you have the patience one hand continuously for a long period ie. 5 to 10 min then swap.
Once you have that down, move onto accenting the one and three (make sure in the previous exercise all are same volume) still hands seperately. Again, when you have that down move onto the next stroke ie. the 2 on right hand or 4 on the left hand. Then slowly move through each accent until they're all done.
The last part is to put the exercise together in the same manner. First no accents, then moving through each one progressively. This will iron out any problems with speeding up up and slowing down and show up any other problems that you didn't even realize were there.
Try it and good luck. Tell us how it goes. It will work.

[Raymond Bloom]

problem:
To be honest, I've never been a fan of paradiddles, and have seldom practiced it
result: I don't have problems doing it slow. It's just the darn paradiddles.
solution: practice paradiddles!!


No, but really, there are no shortcuts if talking about rudiments! Practice them for long periods of time at different tempos and focus on those doubles, don't play them as a double stroke, but as single strokes!! Play them as two seperate strokes, not two strokes from one motion

a lot of people make these mistakes with the stick controll single beat combinations, those doubles are meant to be played as seperate strokes, that's why it's called - single beat combinations