Popular item recently, a bunch of students at various levels are digging this. With the previous thing we were adding the paradiddles to some basic rock beats, here we’re stripping it down further, fitting them […]
Category: paradiddles
Embellishing a groove – paradiddle inversion
Something we were doing in a lesson, putting this very useful paradiddle inversion pattern— RLLR-LRRL— into some ordinary rock grooves, as embellishments. I didn’t compose these to be awesome grooves, these are the types of […]
Paradiddle inversion control – 03
More than ever convinced that this is basic language— you got singles in 16ths, singles in triplets, and the RLLR-LRRL paradiddle inversion in 16ths. Certainly any time you get into Latin playing, funk or fusion […]
Reed interpretations: Ed Blackwell – 01
A couple of things cooking with the old paradiddle inversion Reed system. Here is a tom tom groove / solo method, creating an Ed Blackwell like vibe, using a combination of accented paradiddle inversions (RLLR-LRRL) […]
Paradiddles with Bellson
Throwing a bone to fans of Louis Bellson’s Modern Reading Text in 4/4 here, with an easy paradiddle system. Most of these things happen naturally out of my teaching, or my playing; here I just […]
Rudimental Reed: two methods
A whole lot of snare drum happening right now. Here are two pretty basic things to do with Syncopation on the practice pad, first with short rolls on the short notes and paradiddles on the […]
Paradiddlea
One of my stupidly-named rudiment variations from 2011 here, without the original superfluous hyphen. In this spelling it might entice some people to say para-DID-lee-ah, of which I approve. It’s a five note paradiddle, RLRRL. […]
Paradiddle-diddle phrases – 01
A page of paradiddle-diddle phrases, like some six stroke roll pages from last year. A couple of my students are eating these up. This is how you learn these things, you don’t just go down […]
Reed interpretation: paradiddle inversion in triplet 16ths
I’m hitting the practice pad a good amount lately, so we’ll be seeing more of these. Here we’re filling in triplet 16ths, in our favored paradiddle sticking, RLLR-LRRL. Or use whatever inferior sticking substitute you […]
Ultimate double paradiddle builder – 01
Happy 2026 everyone— continuing this “ultimate builder” series, with double paradiddles. It looks like a lot of stuff, but these are all things you have to have together to do the actual rudiment. You’ll learn […]
Ho ho ho, right-side diddles
Is that festive? I hope everyone’s holidays have been wonderful— here’s what I do, in between movies (A Christmas Story, then Die Hard, maybe later Brazil. Wife is on a Terry Gilliam kick): This has […]
Reed tweak: paradiddle inversions – Jack’s option
This is a sticking variation on the 16th note RLLR-LRRL paradiddle inversion system, that was improvised by mistake by one of my students, age 15. We have a different relationship to mistakes on this instrument. […]