Paraddidle Accent Rate Changes

It seems I find a rich vein of ideas in paradiddles! This one combines paradiddle stickings and accents with rate changes!

This exercise works rhythm and chops. The idea is to shift the paradiddles through three rate changes while maintaining the sticking and the accents.

So, we move the patterns from sixteenths to triplet sixteenths to thirty-second notes and back.

The transition to triplet-sixteenths is the main challenge here. The quarter note pulse has to be solid (use a metronome!).

The accents bring out a nice three over two (six over four) polyrhythm - [A1] and [B1].

The transition to thirty-second notes is the chopsy part, especially when the tempo picks up.

The basic paradiddle pattern [A] is easy enough.

It gets harder with the inverted paradiddle [B]; at the 32nd rate too.

Both [C1] & [D1] are tricky as triplet-sixteenths because of where the accents fall. This makes it great rhythm training!

The full exercise is two bars of each rate, moving up to thirty-second notes and back down again, which makes an eight-bar pattern. Use a basic foot pattern throughout.

For space, only the sixteenth note and triple sixteenth note patterns are shown above; the full exercise is written out in the PDF.

Once mastered, the accents can be voiced on the toms, which might open some ideas for soloing. The accents could also be accented on the cymbals with a bass drum.

Of course, this should also be practised as eighth notes to triplets to sixteenths, which is fantastic for medium-tempo jazz playing.

Have fun. Make music.