Six stroke rolls around the drums

I'm just cranking them out today. I've been using the last paradiddles around the drums thing so much I decided to write up something similar using another familiar solo pattern, the six stroke roll (as it's often called) in a sixtuplet rhythm: RLLRRL. What they really are is a paradiddle-diddle inversion. I've written them in 6/8, but you can play them in 2/4 as sixtuplets, or as 16ths in 3/4, giving a 6/8 feel, or as 16ths in 4/4, for a meter-within-meter thing. Or as triplets within a fast 4/4. I'll write up an outline of the possibilities when I have the time. This rudiment is usually played with accents on the singles- I suggest playing these with and without them.

Refer to the paradiddles post for more ways of practicing these.

Oh, and go see Andrew @ the Melodic Drummer- he's put up some around-the-drums conditioners of his own.

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Sixtuplet plus release

This is something that came up in my practicing yesterday, and I went ahead and scribbled out a page of it for you. These sound good fast, but it's also a good idea to ask "what would Andy Newmark do?" and play them at slower tempos, or in half time, focusing on getting them to sit nicely. You should also take it a few steps further and figure out your own rhythmic variations and bass drum parts.

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