Basic Paradiddle Groove Using Ghosted Snares

In this lesson you will be creating another development on the Basic Paradiddle Groove that will involve switching the orchestration of the hands and making use of some Dynamics. The One Drum Per Hand orchestration concept would be particularly useful to know for this groove construction method. Through this page I will be explaining the hand pattern and building up the part in a step by step process. I will then give some examples of the groove with bass drums applied.

The fundamental concept is that the right hand will be playing on a cymbal (for most examples I'll use the ride) and the left hand will play Ghost Notes on the snare, adding in Accents on beats 2 and 4 to create a common time backbeat feel. The basic movement of this part is pretty simple as it isn't too dissimilar to paradiddle orchestrations covered early on, the difficulty comes in getting the different levels of dynamics. The accents and ghost notes are really what will make this groove idea different to other forms of paradiddle groove construction so it is important to get it right. Hopefully, the step by step process given below will help with that.

As with any step by step style lesson, make sure you can play the current step at a decent tempo with no slips in timing before moving onto the next.


Building The Hand Part - Step 1

Start off by playing a paradiddle with the right hand placed on the ride cymbal and the left on the snare. Don't worry about ghost notes or accents yet, just get comfortable with playing the rudiment with the hands in this position.

Building the hands for this groove concept


Building The Hand Part - Step 2

This time, the hand position will be the same as above but you will be ghosting the left hand on the snare, meansingit should be played much quieter than the right hand on the ride. That will cause the rhythm of the right hand to stand out a little more. The most important thing to focus on here is those two different dynamic levels, the right hand should be playing as normal but the left should be lifting far lower and pressing in a little less.

Building the hands for this groove concept


Building The Hand Part - Step 3

Now you will back track slightly. The ghost notes have been removed but accents on beats 2 and 4 have been added, both of which will fall on a left hand. As with the previous step, the focus here is on getting the two different dynamic levels correct. This time the right will still be playing as normal but the left hand played on beats 2 and 4 will be lifting slightly higher and pressing in a little harder to make those notes stand out a little more.

Building the hands for this groove concept


Building The Hand Part - Step 4

Finally you will combine steps 2 and 3 giving you the full hand pattern. You now have three different dynamic levels. The right hand playing as normal, slightly louder accented notes on beats 2 and 4 and the softer ghosted snares. Spend a lot of time focusing on making sure those levels are distinctly different.

Building the hands for this groove concept


The rest of this page is all about adding bass drums under the hand pattern. I am going to stick to just simple Level 0 Groove style patterns while you are familiarizing yourself with this more intricate hand pattern. Only a few examples are given so when you have got those down have a look through the level 0 grooves area and add some more versions. The bass drum should play at the same dynamic level as the right hand.

In the final example I have given a slightly more complicated version with the bass drum follows the right hand. I have mixed up the right hand placement in some grooves.


Full Groove 1

A paradiddle groove using ghosted snares


Full Groove 2

A paradiddle groove using ghosted snares


Full Groove 3

A paradiddle groove using ghosted snares


Full Groove 4

A paradiddle groove using ghosted snares


Full Groove 5

A paradiddle groove using ghosted snares


Full Groove 6

A paradiddle groove using ghosted snares


TASKS

  1. Learn the grooves given above. Aim for a tempo of around 120bpm.
  2. Create further grooves using simple kick placement.
  3. Experiment with varying the orchestration.

Lessons

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