Pondering Doublestrokes

Practically speaking, how much do you find yourself doublestroking things during your typical gig/recording session versus single stroke fills.

And while we're at it, what are everyone's favorite doublestroke practice exercises?

I use double strokes a lot. Actually, so do you. Whenever you play lh on the snare and rh on the hi hat, you're playing double stokes with each hand, right?

Aside from that, I play them quite a bit. I throw in rolls and rudimental style "diddles" (double strokes) in my playing. I also strike toms with two hits in a row to get fills to work out with left or right crash depending on what I want. In swing and shuffle applications, I'll often play two rights on snare with the third beat of the triplet on some tom or other. So, yeah I do.

The single paradiddle (RLRR LRLL) is a great place to start. Then start moving the double around (RRLR LLRL). Then play straight sixteenths and doulbe one hand. RRLRR LLRLL where the double is actually 2 32nd notes. Set the metronome at double the speed so it's clicking 1/8 notes. After a while turn it up a couple. This is my favorite doubles exersize at the moment.

I use doubles all the time - sometimes as a traditional drum-roll, but more often than not, as part of my visual appearance, I'll do very large double strokes on two drums to make it look interesting. On my floor tom and snare. I'll start low on the initial stroke and pull my arm up and reach downwards a bit on the second stroke. Kinda like a wave effect, or pulling taffy.

Sometimes I'll use doubles on my snare as I'm whacking away at toms and cymbals with my right hand in a triplet pattern during fast stuff, because it sounds insane and is really easy to pull off.

Exercises like this are why I always love to go back to the very first page of Stick Control. Quite possibly the most useful single page of drum pedagogy ever.

the short roll combos in SC are great for working your doubles too

The choice should be musical first and physical second. Singles allow much more detailed shaping of lines. They also allow a wider range of of articulation than diddles. In common usage diddles afford concessions to sluggish chops and awkward stickings. They are in that sense, unavoidable.

On the plus diddles side, they have a unique inflection that is part of the drum language and is difficult to produce with strict hand to hand playing. The issue here is competence. Sloppy doubles is in the top five of drum no noz. Special care needs to be taken that the sticks don't get away - and they will whether you're Meg White or Steve Smith.

Joe Morello says

[YOUTUBE]CujyFrnsmGs[/YOUTUBE]

Jim Chapin is into double and triple strokes, no singles at all....

[YOUTUBE]KMrazzap2NA[/YOUTUBE]

Yes, I prefer DoubleStuf Oreos over single Oreos.

triple strokes make me feel bad

I disagree with this, especially the last part. The way 99% of the population plays doubles, you're right, eventually they get down to a really loose floor tom and maybe don't realize how loose it is and the double comes off as a sloppy buzz. However, there is a way to play perfect doubles on any surface regardless of rebound. This same method allows you to accent the upstroke. The secret is to incorporate finger control on the upstroke, otherwise called "push-pull". Guys like Jo Jo Meyer and Tim Waterson preach this technique like gospel, and they can demonstrate perfect doubles on any playing surface.

Of course, with techniques like push-pull the lines between doubles and singles blur, as single strokes are just interlaced doubles anyway. (Hmmm, or you could say that doubles are just displaced singles, depending on what way you want to look at it.)

I am almost never conscious of what I play. I put in so much time with rudiments, workbooks, snare solos, and applying it to the kit that I never think about it.

I'm pretty sure I don't use many double strokes on the toms, probably because they slur a bit and probably because I just haven't wanted to.

This is pretty much why I asked the question in the first place. I've been playing for 22 years. I very rarely "think about" HOW I'm doing something. The only thing I "think" about is if it sounds good and clean. My philosophical brain just went "wait...how much do you and other people use these little gems you practice and when?"

For as philosophical as I am, that never occurred to me! Usually I just say "hell, I gotta go play and see if it works or not."

Hi Jeffy. You're still mincing my words. Are you French Canadian? You seem to have a problem with English.

I use chopped up doubles often. It's a means to an end. When I play a fill I think of what I want the fill to sound like in my head and my hands just copy that. It's almost not a deliberate thought. I use the force,haha.

I actually use diddles a WHOLE lot. I'm really into the whole drum corps thing, though, so that might be part of it. But if a drummer can play clean and controlled diddles at a decent speed, then they usually have the hand control (and relaxed grip) to nail singles and even switch between singles and doubles while keeping the rhythm the same (one of my favorite things to do). If I'm ever playing a solo or a snare break on my kit, then I love pulling out my corps training and playing diddles and all of it's hybrid rudiments (cheeses, flam-drags, and my personal favorite, flam-5's).

and as kirk said,

I do this A LOT in my kit playing. You can hear me do it on my bands profile in the song Fake in the intro. Actually, I use diddles a lot in the verse and chorus too, but in different ways. I use it in the verse for a "ska" type beat with small "fills" in the hi hat, and in the chorus, I use them with my right hand doing quarter-note triplets to make the ride bell pattern sound harder than it really is. haha.

If you want to see how I utilize diddles, listen to my band (www.myspace.com/theshawband) and the song Fake.

:poke:

No, I'm not. I've often wondered if you are though. Instead of taking shots why don't you tell me how I misinterpreted your message?