Friday, October 1, 2010

Variations on Joe's "Killer" Exercise

While on the road over the last month I got a lot of inspiration from this clip of Joe Morello demonstrating a sticking exercise that one dedicated reader of this blog forwarded to me a few weeks ago:



I believe this is from one of Joe's instructional DVDs (which I'm ashamed to admit that I haven't checked out yet!) but it's basically the same thing as this page (from Morello's fine book "Master Studies", just a little bit different):



This is a great exercise to develop fluidity switching between your single, double and paradiddle strokes.

Now I came up with the following while playing my drum pad in the hills of Tuscany: play the same exercise in triplets !

Here's a couple of variations:


1) Variation #1

RLR LRL RLR LRL
RRL LRR LLR RLL
RLR RLR LLR LRR

LRL RLR LRL RLR
LLR RLL RRL LRR
LRL LRL RRL RLL


2) Variation #2 (this one is twice as long and changes up the sticking between the hands a bit)

RLR LRL RLR LRL RLR LRL RLR LRL
RRL LRR LLR RLL RRL LRR LLR RLL
RLR RLR LLR LRR LRL LRL RRL RLL

A couple of things to consider:

- don't be afraid to accent the beginning of each paradiddle, especially the faster you play them

I found it interesting, in that video clip of Morello playing in particular, how he's not afraid to let the single, double and paradiddle strokes sound slightly differently from each other.

- try mixing up the order of each stick grouping

ie. play singles, doubles, paradiddles THEN doubles (and repeat)

Do this with the 4/4 version that Joe plays above as well.

Just remember though, exercises like this aren't music - they are just tools we use to make music. So don't get too caught up in the mechanics of it.

Personally, when I get home and can play my drums again after a long trip, I'm happy to forget about all the chops and drum pad stuff for awhile and practice quarter notes on my ride cymbal !

1 comment:

  1. Yes, I agree that single strokes are allowed to sound different from paradiddles. After all, isn't that the point of using different stickings? I always try to make them sound the same when I practice, but in the end, they sound as you said, slightly different, and that's the beauty of it. If you listen to Art Blakey's drum solos, you can hear very clear when he plays paradiddles over the set, because it gives the frasing a special sound. In my oppinion anyway. Thanks for the tips!

    /Anders Johansson, Sweden

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