Friday, March 02, 2012

First-inversion paradiddles around the drums

This came up in my own practice today, and I went ahead and wrote it up. I've been doing a fair amount of this kind of thing lately- straight conditioning for getting around the drums- mostly using the very traditional Joe Cusatis books. I try not to think of this as learning licks; it's more about programming into my muscle memory some moves that I might not do on the fly. First inversion paradiddles (that's the RLLR LRRL sticking) are one of the key patterns for playing "hip", and I use them a lot, so they're a more logical starting place for me than regular paradiddles.


Notes:
  • Practice measures individually, then in the following sequence:
    Ex. 1-2, 1-3, 1-4... 2-3, 2-4, 2-5... 3-4, 3-5, 3-6... etc.
    On sequences, play each measure once or twice:
    Ex. 1-2-1-2..., or 1-1-2-2-1-1-2-2... etc. 
  • Notes in parenthesis are for making transitions between exercises without a crossover.  
  • Practice these in the quarter note = 120-160 range. You should be able to fly around the drums with these. 
  • Typo alert: Ex.8, second beat- play the right hand double on the floor tom. 

Get the pdf

2 comments:

petertan_182 said...

can you teach me more about how to hold the drumsticks correctly? Thanks

Todd Bishop said...

Hi Peter-

Blogging isn't a great format for that- especially since I'm not doing videos at present. I would seek out a good teacher, or look into the videos by Joe Morello or Jojo Mayer (or many others). I'll probably do a little technique post soon, though. Thanks for reading! tb