Paradiddles are often one of the first of the more complex rudiments that drummers learn. In seventh grade, my first drum set teacher showed me how to incorporate paradiddles into drum set grooves, and I’ve been hooked ever since.
Playing paradiddles on drum set requires drummers to define the accented and unaccented notes. Try playing accents on the hi hat with the shoulder of the stick on the edge of the hats. For snare drum accents, play a rimshot. These are the heavier ways to play those instruments, so the dynamic contrast will be apparent if the playing surfaces are well defined.
Good drum set players are good snare drummers. So, before we dive into paradiddles on the drum set, the first few sections include exercises for a single surface, like a practice pad or snare drum. That surface can be anything, of course. I’ve had teachers who loved to drum on their cars.
For all of the following exercises …
- Define the controlled and rebound strokes. See these articles for lessons on those fundamental strokes.
- Practice on a pad with a metronome set to different tempos ranging from really slow to as fast as you can play without losing control.
- Play these exercise on the snare drum, and then move the accents to the toms or cymbals.
- Listen the unaccented notes, especially when they are on the snare drum and the accents are on toms. The key is in the quieter strokes. Make sure that they are even and all strong.
- Relax. Always play without tension in your muscles.
Paradiddles
Paradiddles are a combination of rebound and controlled strokes. The controlled strokes are used to play the accented notes, and the rebound strokes are for the unaccented notes. Although accents are not required to make a sticking combination a paradiddle, they are often a key feature of the rudiment and can become messy if they are not well defined.
It’s important to practice paradiddles with and without accents, and start all exercises leading with the left hand as often as you lead with the right. This helps to maintain a balance in your hand to hand coordination. It also helps when you need to move around the drum set.
The following exercise is designed to balance your hands in terms of which one leads each measure. Try to match your sounds on both hands. This is easier to do on a drum pad than on drums. If you sound good on a pad, you’ll sound amazing on drums.
Paradiddle-Diddles
Paradiddle-diddles are exactly as their name suggests. They are a paradiddle with another diddle. This means that consecutive paradiddle-diddles will start with the same leading hand. This can be powerful, and it can also be limiting.
When written as sixteenth notes, the paradiddle-diddle spans a beat and a half. It’s important to think about this because you’ll need to plan on resolving or starting the rudiment accordingly when playing them on drum set. For example, if you want the paradiddle-diddle to resolve on beat 1, you’ll need to start it on the + (and) of beat 3 in 4/4 time.
The following exercise is based on the same pattern as the paradiddle exercise above. To make the leading hand transition, I added a single paradiddle before the two eighth-note accents.
Double Paradiddles
This name is a little misleading because it’s not two paradiddles. It’s actually a double para and a diddle. If you think of the para as the right (R) and left (L) before or the diddle, the hand-to-hand sticking is the para. Double it before the diddle for a double paradiddle.
No one has ever explained this concept to me. It’s just the only way it could make sense. If you have a better explanation, let us know in the comments below.
I think of double paradiddles as having the rhythmic structure of a paradiddle-diddle yet the hand-to-hand concept of the single paradiddle. These are both important for playing on drum set because the possibilities for playing syncopated accents are really awesome, and the balance of right hand and left hand leads allow you to access different parts of the drum kit.
The exercise below is another one for the practice pad. Try voicing double paradiddles around the drum set as you get more comfortable on the pad. Play them slowly and with a metronome so you can hear how the pattern relates to the downbeats.
Moving Accents
I initially learned paradiddles with accents. When my second drum teacher asked me to play them without accents, I was blown away. It wasn’t as comfortable at first because I was originally relying on the accent as a guide.
But as I went through the Stick Control exercises, my focus on the taps as rebound strokes was the beginning of a new level of strength for my hands. Then, I learned about moving the accents, which is when things got exciting.
The exercise below starts by moving the accents on sixteenth note to the right every measure. It’s very important to play them slowly, especially when an accent is one of the two double strokes.
Check out these controlled stroke and rebound lessons if you need more advanced stick control practice.
Double Accents
This is tricky if you don’t practice the moving accent exercise slow enough and achieve definition of the accented and unaccented notes. I fall back on the technique in the Joe Morello book. You can read more about this technique in this article on method books every drummer should own.
Adding an additional accent adjacent to the initial accent amplifies your need to be that much more in tune with your rebound and controlled strokes development. If you have trouble with this exercise, think about the accent to tap exercises in the article linked in the last section. Relax your wrists and use your arms to achieve a smooth transition from accent to tap.
Remember to also relax your arms and shoulders when you start voicing these exercises around the drum set. Double accents applied any of the types of paradiddles can be really cool when you try things like playing the accents on cymbals supported by the kick drum and the unaccented notes on your snare drum.
The “Paradiddle Exercises” PDF includes an exercise for double accents.
Paradiddle Grooves
Incorporating paradiddles into your grooves is almost instantly funky. It’s the foundation of drummers like David Garibaldi and will open doors for your own style development if you have done the work on the practice pad.
Start with simple applications of single paradiddles. The first series of exercises in the PDF are examples of playing paradiddles with one hand (right or left) on the hi hat and the other on the snare drum. The rest is simply exploring different kick drum variations.
The third exercise on the “Paradiddles on Drum Set” PDF places the kick drum on different sixteenth notes. This kind of exercise is similar to the concept in moving accents on the “Paradiddle Exercises” PDF.
Try playing paradiddles on cymbals and snare drum while reading the exercises in Ted Reed’s Syncopation on the kick drum. After you’ve developed the coordination through some of the exercises I’ve shared in the PDF, you’ll want to maintain it by reading various sight reading exercises, which can be found in several of the books discussed in the article linked above on method books.
Advanced players should try some of the exercises in Future Sounds by Garibaldi. My favorite exercise is the single paradiddle played with eighth-note triplets and four on the floor kick (see exercise 5 on the “Paradiddles on Drum Set” PDF). The grouping of four that’s delineated with an accent every four triplet eighths phrases across the barline, especially when the book permutates the paradiddle.
Paradiddle Fills
Paradiddles are helpful when it comes to moving accents around the drum set while playing more sophisticated drum fills. For example, playing single paradiddles with accents on the downbeats can be voiced with the accents on toms and unaccented notes on the snare.
Add combinations of the single accents and double accents to discover more possibilities. The examples below focus on one-beat, two-beat, and full bar fills that incorporate different accent placement and drum voicings.
Keith Carlock plays a paradiddle-diddle lick that starts with two kicks on the first two sixteenths, followed by two R L accents on the toms, and the unaccented diddles on the snare (see the drum fills section on the PDF). The lick can be voiced around the kit, stacked several times on one another, or played once as a transitional fill.
Developing Solo Ideas
Developing a drum solo is about developing a rhythmic theme – a motive (or motif). You can use paradiddles to facilitate the creation of your theme. Try some of the ideas below to play around with ideas.
Next, you’ll want to work on the form of your solo. Try common forms like AABA where the A section is repeated before a different part is played, finishing with the first part. People like hearing cool drum parts over and over, but they also like hearing new ones before being brought back the one they initially liked.
It doesn’t have to be all paradiddles. Use the paradiddles to voice your ideas. Consider trying some of the different types of paradiddles and accent patterns.
Lastly, don’t forget about dynamics and space. Drumming is really cool, but being musical is on your instrument is the most important part.