WELCOME TO FOUR ON THE FOUR: A BLOG ABOUT JAZZ DRUMMING AND ALL THINGS UNRELATED, BROUGHT TO YOU BY JON McCASLIN

Thursday, October 19, 2017

Paradiddle 1-2-3

A simple but sideways little exercise today that I've been messing with on the snare drum lately.

This one consists of literally one single paradiddle followed by one double paradiddle followed by one triple paradiddle (with accents!) all played consecutively. However, the challenge is to keep a steady two-beat pulse underneath with the bass drum and hi-hat (sorry...the bass drum isn't very audible on the clip below!)



The paradiddle combination is an 18-note cycle (that switches hands back and forth, each time) and it moves around the beat in a somewhat unpredictable way so you really have to concentrate to keep your rhythmic balance centred.

I supposed you could also up the ante as well by orchestrating the accents of each paradiddle around the drums and changing the bass drum/hi-hat to a samba foot pattern (paging Mr. Dawson!)

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