Bishopdiddles

Minor item, corralling some similar sticking ideas that have been floating around the site. I noticed that with paradiddle-like stickings, I like inverting them so the double is up front, right after the first accent. These all follow that pattern:   

 

DISCLAIMER: I don't want to mislead anyone with that BISHOPDIDDLES™© headline— I obviously didn't invent the RLLR-LRRL paradiddle inversion. The George Lawrence Stone estate would be working me over in court right now if I made that claim. My God. Or that RLLRRL sticking. The other two probably exist in some book somewhere*, but I got them from my own usage. 

* - I see now they're in Rudimental Swing Solos, with accents on the double, for some reason. 

 
So there they are as a single group of patterns. You can see them applied in this cool Reed system. 

Why do do this? When improvising with them on the drum set, you can hear the natural accents of the sticking, and they affect the way you can move around the drums. That's fine with me, it's natural texture, it's what I want. 

The double and triple paradiddles start with these strong singles, and end weakly with a double. They die at the end. However strongly you play the double, that's the structure of those patterns. 

With my wonderful stickings, the double slipstreams behind the starting accent— naturally a long sound— and the pattern finishes strongly, with singles: diga-diga-POW. If we accent all the leading singles, you can see how the natural momentum goes with each one:

I generally only use the double/triple paradiddle inversions once at a time, but they have some very interesting possibilities, I'll be writing some ways of doing them continuously. 

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Reed interpretation: paradiddle inversion - key and warm-ups

Preparatory page for a Reed system using the highly useful RLLR-LRRL paradiddle inversion— we're doing a lot with it for a reason. It's easy to play fast, works great on the drums, and fits a number of styles well. 

This is very similar to a triplet method we did last year, with an alternating sticking, accents on the cymbals, but omitting any left hand cymbal notes. The concept is straightforward when you do it, but it's not real easy to describe in a blog post. 

It falls under your hands exactly the same as that triplet method, except we're doubling the middle note, and spreading it out into a 16th note rhythm. Reading out of Syncopation, the 8th note rhythms become dotted 8th-16ths. 

I'll save the full breakdown of the system later, just play this page... which will probably be enough for most people. Left hand column is the Syncopation-type rhythm we're interpreting, middle column is the applied sticking, right hand column is the sticking with the LH cymbal hits omitted: 

You can and should freely accent any of the single notes on the snare drum. And try leaving the right on the cymbal the whole time, see what that does. Try it in a samba feel with this Airto loop, or try with this faster John Zorn loop.

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Paradiddle inversion control - 01

A sketchpad for my own practicing— a set of velocity studies using one paradiddle inversion in particular, the massively fun and useful RLLR-LRRL form. In case you're listening to all that Antonio Sanchez and thinking I need to get my FAST CRAP together.  

Do massive repetitions of all of these, then combine them— every measure combined with every other measure, with each measure played once or twice. For normal life be thinking in the quarter note = 115-150 range. You can certainly do them faster that. 

You see what we're doing here— accenting any single notes in the sticking RLLR-LRRL, or putting them on a cymbal, maybe with bass drum added; moving the whole mess around the drums. At faster speeds you'll accent less. Find your own variations that work for you   

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Velocity stickings for Syncopation, Lesson 10

For a couple of my students I've written a set of velocity stickings to use with Lesson 10 (pp. 22-23) in Syncopation. They're designed to be played fast, hey? These will be a godsend for everyone trying to do that hyperactive contemporary thing with the super fast embellishments— like if you have your eye on some hihats with giant holes in them, and are really digging super high, dry, white noise-like percussion sounds... what every single drummer in the world under ~ age 30 is into right now.     

This should really be expanded into a new e-book, so I won't overdo it writing a maximal number of patterns. I've given my suggested release note(s), but any sticking ending with a single R or L can release on either hand; stickings ending with a double should release on the opposite hand. Some stickings will start with the same hand every measure, others will switch lead hands every measure.  

Play the 8th note portion of each measure however you like. I suggest starting with all R hand, all L hand, alternating starting with R, and alternating starting with L.

To simplify the first measure of each drill, on exercises with 16ths crossing the barline (lines 8, 12, 13), I play 8th notes until I hit the first full two or three beat run of 16ths, starting on beats 3 or 4. Or just use my example rhythms below. Interpret these in cut time, so the 16th notes function as 32nd notes— the eight-note subdivision.

1. One beat of 16ths - lines 1-4, 14-15

RLLR  R/L  -  LRRL  L/R
RRLR  L  -  LLRL  R
RLRR  L  -  LRLL  R

2. Two beats of 16ths - lines 5-8 

RLLR  LRRL  R/L  -  LRRL  RLLR  L/R
RLLR  LRLL  R  -  LRRL  RLRR  L
RLLR  LLRL  R/L  -  LRRL  RRLR  L/R 
RLLR  LLRR  L  -  LRRL  RRLL  R

RRLR  LRRL  R  -  LLRL  RLLR  L 
RRLR  LRLL  R  -  LLRL  RLRR  L 
RRLR  RLRR  L  -  LLRL  LRLL  R

RLRR  LRRL  R  -  LRLL  RLLR  L 
RLRR  LLRR  L  -  LRLL  RRLL  R
RLRR  LLRL  R  -  LRLL  RRLR  L 

3. Three beats of 16ths - lines 9-10, 12-13

RLLR  LRRL  RLLR  R/L  -  LRRL  RLLR  LRRL  L/R
RLLR  LRRL  LRRL  R/L  -  LRRL  RLLR  RLLR L/R
RLLR  LRLL  RLLR  L  -  LRRL  RLRR  RLLR  L
RLLR  RLRL  LRRL  R  -  LRRL  LRLR  RLLR  L

RLRL  LRLR  LRRL  R  -  LRLR  RLRL  RLLR  L 
RLRL  RLLR  LRLR L/R  -  LRLR  LRRL  RLRL  R/L
RLRL  RRLR  RLRL R  -  LRLR  LLRL  LRLR  L
RLRL  LRRL  RLLR  L  -  LRLR  RLLR  LRRL  R

RLRR  LRRL  RLLR  L  -  LRLL  RLLR  LRRL  R
RLRR  LRRL  LRRL  R  -  LRLL  RLLR  RLLR  L
RLRR  LLRL  LRRL  R  -  LRLL  RRLR  LRRL  L 
RLRR  LRRL  LRLL  R  -  LRLL  RLLR  RLRR  L 

4. Four beats of 16ths - line 11

I'm skipping this for now. Try repeating any of the two-beat stickings that release on the same hand they start with. 

Perhaps we'll see a new e-book on this topic in the coming weeks/months! In the meantime see my e-book 13 Essential Stickings, which is designed around this basic premise of stickings that are easy to play fast, as well as my page of velocity stickings in 3/4 and 12/8. 

Velocity patterns in 3/4

Here's something I've been working with, similar to the patterns in these alternative versions of Three Camps. They're easy to play fast, and so are good for blazing, double-timey playing. These can be played on snare drum and cymbal, plus bass drums, or all around the drums, or whatever. Sound hip and amazing by setting stuff on your drums and moving around a lot, while doing these really fast. That's the current thing.

For some reason I wanted to see the 12/8 versions of the same patterns, so I have included those here. That's the way I do things— everything is always what it is, and something else.

Play the bass drum with all of the cymbal notes, or none of them, or some of them. A good way to streamline for speed is to add bass drum to just one note of the RH doubles, for example:

Try it with the All Blues loop.

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