I’ve been digging deeper into inverted paradiddles and the deeper I go, the cooler it gets and the more ideas I come up with. That’s what “deep practice” is all about. Immerse yourself deeply in a particular aspect of your playing or in a concept you’re working on and you’ll see the power of it. […]

This inversion of the ever-useful paradiddle is sometimes referred to as the “paradiddle with the diddle in the middle.” It’s one of my favorite stickings because it is very easy to put accents on either the quarter note or the “a.” And that allows for some cool sounding phrases to be created. The first step, […]

New ideas frequently come from very simple ideas that you already know. The guts of Nasty Lick #75, presented here, came from a very simple 16th note lick I’ve been playing for a very long time (the sticking is “RLRL”), shown below: The new version came from simply adding bass drum notes before and after […]

When practicing with the aim of better soloing, one of the most important concepts is figuring out how to connect your ideas. I’ve come to realize, after a lot of trial and error, that the best thing to do is to focus on things that are comfortable for you to play and then figure out […]