Ted Diddly

Howdy,
I recently ran across Jon McCaslin's excellent entry on Shuffle Diddles from the Four on the Floor blog. I had an interesting ( but not rare, unfortunately ) experience where I realized that I wasn't satisfied with my execution of part of Jon's exercise. In particular I wasn't happy with my paradiddle diddle off my left hand. E.g. LRLLRR. So I kept working on playing this sticking and voicing it around the drums in different ways. I played it in 8th notes, triplets, 5s and 7s. I tried to articulate it in different ways using, doubles, buzzes, and dead strokes. I could write out a bunch of this stuff, but I think it's better if you go and discover your own vocabulary with this.

I think an even more important thing was reinforced for me during this process. I feel no one in drums, music, or even any art form creates in a vacuum. It's like Jon and I and every drummer who ever played are all in the same playground, trying ideas and getting inspired by each other. Very inspiring!