How to elevate your techno with a paradiddle

Published 2024-07-22
If you've never drummed before, you may never have heard of the paradiddle, a drum rudiment that follows a simple pattern: RLRRLRLL - it's surprisingly potent once applied to rolling percussion in a techno context. Try it out!

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Contents:
0:00 what is a paradiddle?
0:44 how to do it in techno?
1:17 let's do it on mid percussion
2:11 accents are important in techno
3:33 run it into a synth
4:13 it works on hihats too
4:32 it works on low toms
5:45 next steps

All Comments (21)
  • @Audiomuscle
    You forgot to remove the tag when you bought your new ear. Just teasing, great video and concept!
  • @carptackula7536
    As a drummer (who can play many types of paraddiddles), I think that it is simpler to teach people to 'think' and phrase using 2s and 3s MUSICALLY and not get stuck on the 'sticking', because the accented 1/16th note patterns you've demonstrated are simply THAT (eg the first 8 note length phrase consisted of several accented 2 and 3 note groupings, in this case its a 3 3 2 pattern...!). It's the same sound without worrying about 'sticking'. Dave Brubeck made use of this concept in many of his odd time compositions. Odd time Turkish and Greek music also makes use of this. Vinnie Colaiuta (famous drummer who played with Zappa) also thinks this way: in groupings of 2s and 3s. It opens up creative opportunities in ANY time signature or ANY length phrase. People could also save midi files 📂 with all of the accented 2 and 3 note combinations and then just drag and drop that into a project file. To a non-drummer, this is much easier concept and can lead to generating many more rhythmical ideas / options (including polyrhytms). And to a drummer - the midi examples given in this video don't make much sense because a drummer would rarely accent the second note of a double stroke within a parradiddle, especially at faster speeds. Instead they would (and could) play it much more naturally and much faster by using 2 and 3 note groupings of 'stickings' eg RLL RLL RL (3 3 2) or they would simply use accented single strokes. ... Try it by tapping it out on a desk If anyone wants to dive deeper, Gary chaffee (Patterns) and Rick Gratton (Rick's Licks) offer so much value in this way of subdividing beats with accents and applying them to a kit, which has a direct application to programming percussion creatively...! 🤗
  • @danielh6683
    Pro tip - get a ML-185 Sequencer in ableton and a drum rack and group them together. make the paradiddle pattern by setting the the pitch values to +1st, 0st, +1st, +1st, 0st, +1st, 0st, 0st and then switch to velocity mode and map each velocity knob to a macro knob. load up your samples in the drum rack at C3 and C#3 and now you can just hit the 'rand' button on the macro area to make endless new paradiddle variations, you can also automate the accents/ghosts changing position over time (perhaps using an m4l LFO) to make cool shifting grooves and other cool things.
  • @eminatorstudios
    Just at the right time. I've been chasing this sort of texturing eversince the Stone Techno festival.
  • @soulofwaves
    I've been a drummer waay long before than I started making EDM and never thought of integrating the paradiddle logic this way into EDM, thanks!
  • i've been wondering how to do drum programming like this for a while so thank you oscar
  • Hey Oscar! It's awesome to see you techno-paradiddling and making this amazing video!! Thank you for the comment highlight 😊 Now that you have the basic paradiddle feel, maybe you could try having a look at the rest of "diddle" rudiments (double paradiddle, triple paradiddle, paradiddle-diddle, etc) and the basic paradiddle inversions (RLLRLRRL, etc). These can make awesome grooves too!
  • @potsandjacks
    There are several different varieties of the paradittle they all have their distinct flavor and feel. I’ve definitely use this exact trick in several of my tracks
  • That was so useful and thank you for making it quick! There's a lot of great stuff to learn on YT but I always go for the short videos.
  • @user-dx6gb8nj2i
    Thanks, Oscar! You inspired me and made me fall in love with techno! Now I have been study and practice it already half of a year)
  • @mjson
    Inspiring as always ❤ thanks!
  • @indigo4953
    For more drum patterns have a look at the first 3 pages of George Stones Stick Control, exercises 3,4,5 are all paradiddles, RLRR LRLL, RLLR LRRL, and RRLR LLRL. Then there are another 80 or so pages of mixing up those patterns in 8th and 16th note triplets, 16th notes with rolls and so on. It's the one book drummers use for life.
  • @fairchild2008
    Oscar you are the best teacher out there! Awesome content as Always, thank you 😊