Tuesday 14 February 2012

Snare drum technique: the Paradiddle.

Some months ago (exactly last summer, as you will see me on the video wearing a t-shirt and tanned), one of the Percusize Me! followers asked me about the paradiddle. At that time I shot a video explaining some of my thoughts, but couldn´t upload it because my PC was running short of RAM and I could not render long HD projects.

Fortunately, after a good cleaning, an OS change, and some "steroidic" diet based on RAM modules, I can retake old projects that were left for better occasion.

In my modest opinion, not many people understand drum rudiments, what they are, what they are for, and how to practise them. Despite rudiments have been with us for centuries (first rudiments were introduced in medieval Switzerland), there are still doubts, myths and missconceptions on how to play them.

Trying to explain my thoughts on the paradiddle, I shot the following video:





Think of rudiments as a very powerful musical, independence, phrasing, rebound control, and use of inertia tool. If you see them as mere hand combinations, you would have understood nothing.

If rudiments have been with us for so long..., let´s practise them the way they deserve!


…et in Arcadia ego.
© David Valdés

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