Music Lesson: Learning the Paradiddle

Welcome back!
Lovely to see you again. Today, we're going to learn one more rudiment.

We've already covered:

• Single Stroke Rolls
• Double Stroke Rolls

Both are reasonably simple to learn but hard to master.

Today's Focus: The Paradiddle

The third rudiment we're going to learn is called a paradiddle. It's a mixture of both single and double strokes. Here's how it breaks down:

• Right hand:
  • Right, left
  • Right, right
• Left hand:
  • Left, right
  • Left, left

Paradiddle Breakdown

So, one more time:

• Right, left, right, right
• Left, right, left, left

Tips for Practicing

What I find quite useful is to put one hand on a different surface, whether it's the floor tom, rack tom, hi-hat, or anything else. This way, you can hear how the sticking works.

If I play it on the snare drum correctly, it might sound like this:

"Bum, bum, bum."

However, it's good to practice on the snare because it's very clear and obvious if you're getting it right rhythmically.

But when you put your right hand on the floor tom, you hear a kind of melody, making it a bit easier to learn. Maybe I'm wrong, but give it a go!

Learning Process

Like the other two rudiments, we'll learn the paradiddle first as crotchets, then quavers, and finally semiquavers.

Crotchets

• Stay relaxed; playing these paradiddles quickly will be hard if you're tense.

Practice Example

1. Crotchets:
   Hi-hat on all the crotchets.

   Count:
   1, 2, 3, 4.

   • Right, left, right, right
   • Left, right, left, left

   Count again:
   1, 2, 3, 4.
   2, 2, 3, 4.

Important Note

Notice that when we play the paradiddle, a right-handed paradiddle sounds like:

• Right, left, right, right
  And a left-handed one sounds like:
• Left, right, left, left

It takes two bars to resolve (twice as long). Just keep an eye on this!

Count:

1, 2, 3, 4.
2, 2, 3, 4.

Moving On to Quavers

Now let's try it with quavers. The challenging part is remembering which side you're playing when the beat changes.

Practice Example

1. Count:
   1, 2, 3, 4.
   • Right, left, right, right
   • Left, right, left, left
   • Right, left, right, right
   • Left, right, left, left (quavers)

Finally, Semi-quavers

Now let's try semiquavers. Begin dead slow to ensure you get the coordination right.

Practice Example

1. Count:
   3, 4.

"I think that sounds quite cool, actually!"

We're going to use that as our fill on beat four of our quaver.

Example Structure

• Three bars of quaver beat three.
• The fourth bar is going to be our fill in semi-quavers for the paradiddle.

Again, let's take it dead slow and aim for accuracy. Playing something simple and slow can still sound really, really good.

Conclusion

At the end of this lesson, we now have three rudiments together:

1. Single Stroke Roll
2. Double Stroke Roll
3. Paradiddle

And we've used them all in fills.

Thanks very much for watching, and I'll see you again soon!