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Paradiddle Exercises Moving Accents To Toms and Cymbals

The Paradiddle. The most popular drum rudiment.

So dramatic! Could be the flam actually.

I’ll never look at the paradiddle in the same way, after a student asked a sporadic question “who created the paradiddle?”. I replied quickly with “Jerry Paraddidle”. After some chuckles at the name and then the rest of the lesson passing, I had to admit at the end that it was a joke! I still don’t know who did, but I’m sure there is info out there.

But is the paradiddle boring?

Well yes and no. It’s how you look at it really. Practicing paradiddles can be boring if you focus on just repeating RLRRLRLL for 10 minutes with a metronome. However, when you look at it as a pattern to unlock a different path to the regular RLRLRLRL, then it’s more interesting because you can move the left and right hands onto different drum voices and make some interesting sounds.

The popularity of the paradiddle can also be limiting in the sense that it’s the go to rudiment. It’s important to keep an open mind with composing and to remember that you can make up your own patterns, in a similar way to the paradiddle, but different. Let’s take the idea of the paradiddle and make new rudiments, new patterns, new standards. Surely there’s other patterns we can be playing. OK let’s give it a go. RRLLLRLRRRL. Any good? Maybe it’s amazing played in an 11/8 time signature. I’ve not tried it, but do you get what I mean?

So anyway, let’s get onto the point of the post. This exercise sheet works with the popular paradiddle and shows how you can make practicing it interesting by moving the accents to toms and cymbals and making up different exercises with it.

The first 3 exercises are all seperate ideas, and then the 4th exercise combines all 3.

The paradiddle features in most of the Rockschool drum grades, so it’s not going away any time soon. You can work on these exercise at any level really, which is why I’ve specified a non specific ’60 to 120bpm’ as the speed. Basically, practice these with or without a metronome at what ever speed seems manageable and then try to increase it each time you go through it, or do it faster next time.

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PDF: Paradiddle Exercises Moving Accents To Toms and Cymbals

Accent Practice Exercise for Snare Drum

This exercise was created to support the learning of playing paradiddles with accents along with a metronome at 70bpm in the Grade 2 Rockschool technical exercises 2012-18 syllabus. I have also suggested to try practicing the sheet between 60 and 120bpm, with or without a metronome. 75-120bpm would be pushing the ability level up to at least Grade 3-4.

It can be hard to play paradiddles with a metronome at first, and if you haven’t worked with a click much before it’s also hard for 16th notes and 8th notes. This exercises works on playing 16th notes with a right, left, right, left sticking to get used to this. Then when you take away the left hand, you are left with right hand 8th notes, which is why they are the foundation of this exercise (first and 3rd line).

On the second line, the R L R L sticking on the 16ths prepares the drummer for the transition to 16ths from 8th notes before going from 8ths to paradiddle 16th notes in line 4. Then with the repeat the first 2 lines are there to settle in to the transitions again. By the end of the exercise the paradiddles exercise should become much easier. The actual grade 2 drums rockschool technical exercise is line 4 played twice.

2 Snare Drum Sticking Exercise Sheets

The first exercise sheet was written to help my drum students build up their coordination and sticking techniques for the snare drum.

The second exercise sheet was transcribed directly from this excellent Hit Like A Girl 2017 entry video by Jenn Proos. The entire ‘sheet 2’ is what she is playing up to 30 seconds. Please watch the video below to see it:

Snare Drum and Floor Tom Piece with Sextuplets, Single Stroke Four’s and Paradiddle-diddle’s

This piece was written for a youth drumming group but it was too difficult for them as they were not quite ready in ability. I’m sure there will be plenty of people out there that will find this a good and achievable challenge.

The drum piece will require a snare drum and floor tom, so you can play it on a regular kit, but you may need to move them closer together.

Use this piece to practice your subdivisions and rudiments, to include Sextuplets, Single Stroke Four’s and Paradiddle-diddle’s.

The left foot hi hats (X below the bottom line) are actually floor tom rims, and the X on the snare drum line is snare rim.

Snare drum sheet music based around single stroke fours and sextuplets

This snare drum sheet is ideal for practicing the single stroke four drum rudiment and also for playing sextuplet rhythms within a piece.

The piece could be played by a group of snare drums or other drums if the players are at an intermediate level of above (at least grade 3).

There are 5 sections labeled A-E, and A is recalled at the end for a repeat. Each section should be practiced seperately and mastered before playing through the whole snare drum piece in one go.

Drums Warm Up Exercise with 4 way co-ordination

The feet are walking, right, left, right, left, on the bass drum and stepped hi hat all the way though, until the last line, where it’s left foot hi hat on every beat.

Follow the sticking (R L R L) for the hands on the snare drum.

Either play as seperate exercises with a metronome, or as one continuous exercise through the whole sheet, with repeats.

Creative Exercises for Paradiddile-diddle in sextuplet sixteenth notes

Here are some creative examples of how you can expand on the ‘Paradiddile-diddle in sextuplet sixteenth notes’ exercise 1 from Grade 7 technical exercises.

There are accents (>) underneath each line of rhythms to watch out for. There are also ghost notes (brackets around the notes), which means to play quiet taps. The diamond shape on the ride cymbal line is the Ride Bell. Play this with the shoulder of the stick to the left hand side of the bell (opposite for left handers).

Drum Solo Exercises Using Six Stroke Roll With RLLRRL Sticking

This is an exercise that can be used in your practice schedule, and can be used as drum fills in your playing. This 6 Stroke Roll rudiment (played on the snare drum) is part of the technical exercises in Rockschool Grade 7 (Alternative paradiddle-diddle in sextuplet sixteenth notes), and is a good excercise for becoming more comfortable with playing it. This six stroke roll exercise can also be used / modified for drum soloing.