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This week’s sticking is one you are probably familiar with. It is the Double Paradiddle. It will come in two parts. This week, we will revisit the actual sticking itself. For those of you who this is new, you will need to learn this before you move on to part 2 next week.

The double paradiddle has a wide variety of uses. I use it in variety of grooves as a fill with variations on note selection, and placement, and also inside of grooves. It is just a good fit for my style. However, it is easy to get into a rut with your choice of how and where you start it, as well as, with what particular voice you start it with.

As with all of the rudiment sticking’s of the week, and the .pdf variations that are included with the training modules, I urge you to explore the creative voices your drum set offers you. You can choose to start your accents on the toms, the snare, hi hat, etc… And then switch to placing unaccented notes on different portions as well. All of this played at different dynamic levels and speeds, opens up huge opportunity for unique fills and grooves within your drumming.

So, get this under your hands at a variety of dynamic levels and speeds, then next week I will give you a few places to start with a groove, and some fill ideas as well. DON’T limit yourself to just my ideas, that is the not the goal. The goal is for YOU, to be able to develop your inner creativity by exploring the different sounds your drum kit has to offer you.

Enjoy!!

Ashley

Sticking of the Week 2 Audio Clips

Audio Example - Medium

Audio Example - Fast

The Sticking of the Week is a free tool I’ve created to give you a chance to expand your creativity on the drum kit or practice pad. This particular sticking starts with a para-diddle and moves the accent over to the “e”, and then back to the one to finish it out.

Now, the goal of this sticking and all future SOTW is not to give you a “Lick” to use, but it is designed to jump start your creativity. I know from personal experience that many times students of mine have found things on the Internet and brought them in for me to show them how to apply them. That seems to be the biggest communication gap for many web related help materials. So, I am going to try and fill that gap by explaining how to go about creating and exploring the different voices of your drum kit. You will be surprised at your ability to create parts you never thought of before after applying this concept.

First, start with this on the snare drum to get the sticking under your hands and begin to hear the accents. Start slow using some of the “largo click tracks” in the Free Tools section of the site. Use a relaxed and light approach to develop the muscle memory of the how the accented and unaccented notes feel flowing between each other.

This is where it gets fun. Try keeping one hand, right or left on the snare playing all of it’s corresponding notes, accented and unaccented. Move only the accented notes of the other hand to another part of your drum kit, (i.e. Tom, hi-Hat, ride, rim, bell, etc…). Spend several minutes doing this and then switch and let the other had do that.

Now, you can reverse this exercise by playing all the unaccented notes on other parts of your kit, and playing only the accented notes on the snare. This part of the exercise alone, could keep you busy for a while.

Think about what I just gave you to do. This was just 10% of how we could open this up. We didn’t even discuss creating a “Linear” groove pattern with it. Just one sticking mastered, or at least internalized, can sound like 20 different ones. How, because of each purposed placement and touch you apply while performing makes it take on a completely unique sound.

Hopefully this reading has triggered your creative side, and now you can go start practicing.

If you enjoyed this, and would like to know how to even create more variations with this and all future stickings, then go sign up for the Groove is King Professional Drum Training system and get ready to completely change the way you practice and play drums.

Sticking of the Week 1 Audio Clips

Audio Example - Slow

Audio Example - Medium

Audio Example - Fast