Paradiddly, yo

Week before last Janet introduced some paradiddle drills she had learned. The week before that, she had hinted that she was going to bring that drill in for us to work on. But first some history: the first time I ever interacted with Janet--the first time I met her, the first time she was teaching me somthing--she brought in some paradiddles, and I was like, huh? Para-what-whats? I thought she was making the whole concept up. What a ridiculous name! Paradiddles! But they're real, people. A paradiddle is basically a pattern that goes rlrr, lrll. So anyway. I practiced the whole week doing my rlrr's, lrll's, but when she brought her excercise in I was completely lost. Yeah, I knew what a paradiddle was, but a paradiddle with accents? And was rrlrlrlrrlrlrlr really a paradiddle?

Yes, yes it is.

There's double paradiddles, and triple paradiddles, and endless variations if you begin the paradiddle at some random point within the pattern and cycle it through to where you started, and even more variation if you decide which side (right or left) to place the accent on. So I practiced the paradiddles she brought in all week. I was playing those paradiddles at 176 and higher on my metronome. So last Sunday she asked if we wanted to work on drills, and I was like, oh heck yeah!, I want to work on paradiddles! It was a good drill. I think I did exceptionally well. Afterward, I asked her, Do you have any more paradiddle drills? Because I had worked so hard on these paradiddles, I was ready for more. Then she opened up her notebook, and it was a chasm of paradiddle drills. I'm telling you--pages and pages of them, written out teenie tiny on pages that were soft with wear. She said she had chosen a few of her favorites and made the drill out of them. Then she said, since you like paradiddles so much, why don't you come in next week with more drills?

At first, I studied her paradiddles and figured that they were part paradiddle, part interesting patterns. So with that freedom I composed some drills, and was stuck because I needed to finish composing some of them. And then I studied her drills and realized that they were all paradiddle and nothing more. I had already come up with three drills, and realized that some of my patterns weren't paradiddles, but strange creatures of my own imagination. Eh, I thought to myself. They're still great patterns. So this Sunday I get to present these drills to my peers. I wonder if Janet or Bean will catch on to the fact that they're not all authentic paradiddles? I came up with three patterns that are composed of two parts each. That makes six patterns. One and a half of them aren't true paradiddle. The half paradiddle is technically paradiddle, but at a stretch. I'm proud of them, though. Heck, the name of our group is Maze, which means to mix, so if I come up with part-paradiddle, part-Kathryn's-imaginary-paradiddle-drill, I'm happy.

We'll see though. That Bean is pretty sharp.