Accented Paradiddle Exercise

[tim1987]

I have decided to make a bigger effort in improving my hand technique and was hoping some you guys may know about this exercise.

I have specifically been practising the exercise from John Riley's "Jazz Drummer's Workshop"-,Chapter 24 and 25- Basic Training 1 and 2. This will also have been in MD at some point in Riley's column.

The exercise from Basic Training 1 is a accented paradiddle exercise. In it JR gives 40 different accent permutations within the paradiddle in eighth notes. The first four examples are:

Rlrr Lrll

rLrr lRll

rlRr lrLl

rlrR lrlL

and so on.

I've started at the recommended starting tempo of 50, and am now at 70. But this is hard because you have to try to get the accents from height- not tension, so you use your Full, Up, Down and Tap strokes. You have to be prepared for the next "move" which is what makes it difficult.

Then in Basic Training 2 he gives you ways to expand the exercise by making:

1) Each accent a double stroke 16th note

2) Each accent a triple stroke

3) Each accent a flam

Then he converts the paradiddles into triplets to cause more complexity and then adds the above conversions again to the triplet paradiddles!!

I'm just trying to get to grips with the accented 8th note paradiddles first and paying attention to my motions and control.

Has anybody had experience with this exercise and have you seen positive results- I'm hoping if practised it should lead to as stated in the book- greater speed, control and relaxation.

Thank you!!

[Class A Drummer]

This type of thing was in Dave Garibaldi's "Future Sounds" between the hi hat and the snare.

Pretty difficult surprisingly.

[jayp]

This was my last lesson I had with my teacher last monday, so for the next 2 weeks i'll be working on this very exercise, we started out at 80bmp and I found it difficult for about a minute or two and then it clicked.

Ill add this just for fun maybe some of you will enjoy this fun little solo.

[tim1987]

I suppose it's a bit like Future Sounds, but that's more about using paradiddles to play time with.

This is more to do with building a strong snare drum technique that should then translate to the whole set- improving speed and control. When applying the accent conversions, it reminds me of that "Stone Killer" exercise from Joe Morello.

[hauk]

Yeah, the basic idea of moving an embellishment around a group of notes like that is called grid. The simplest way to use it is accents on an alternating sticking, but changing stickings, changing the accents to flams, keeping the accent on the first note always but moving the flam, moving the accent but also adding a flam immediately after each accent, doing any of that with drags, etc are great ways to keep it interesting (and difficult). There are countless ways to mess with grid. You can also do the same thing with triplets - triplet grid instead of 16th grid, or of course if you wanna get real interesting you can do groups of five, etc. Then of course you can do it with a 2 (or 3) embellishment base for each group, which adds a lot more possible basic patterns. When I grid things, I usually do it in a sequence where I first play each pattern four times (one bar each), then for two times each but play that whole thing twice, and then one time each but all of that four times. Here, it's easier to see:
Rlrl Rlrl Rlrl Rlrl | rLrl rLrl rLrl rLrl | rlRl rlRl rlRl rlRl | rlrL rlrL rlrL rlrL |
Rlrl Rlrl rLrl rLrl | rlRl rlRl rlrL rlrL | Rlrl Rlrl rLrl rLrl | rlRl rlRl rlrL rlrL |
Rlrl rLrl rlRl rlrL | Rlrl rLrl rlRl rlrL | Rlrl rLrl rlRl rlrL | Rlrl rLrl rlRl rlrL |
That's with just the most basic version: alternating sticking, using accents as the only embellishment.
What's real fun is to pick a complex set of embellishments, then randomly point a finger at Stick Control and use that sticking. It keeps you on your toes.

[hauk]

Bump, cause I think this is a cool exercise.

[tim1987]

Well I've got up to 90 bpm playing the paradiddles at 16ths, so the speed is coming though that isn't the most important thing.

[lildrummerboy827]

This was my last lesson I had with my teacher last monday, so for the next 2 weeks i'll be working on this very exercise, we started out at 80bmp and I found it difficult for about a minute or two and then it clicked.

Ill add this just for fun maybe some of you will enjoy this fun little solo.

I dig this exercise!