Diddles and Pu-da-das

Diddles and Pud-da-das

Stewert Copland, one of my favorite drummers of all time, is probably most vivid in my mind for incorporating and stylizing diddles and double strokes into his playing. Unique and one of a kind for that time period. It was usually on his hi-hat mixed in with the reggae feel of the sidestick and kick. The most obvious being The Police song "Walking on the Moon".

Adrian Young, Chad Smith, Carter Beauford, and Tim "Herb" Alexander are all other great drummers that brought this concept to the table for me. Chad Smith would put triplets into his playing and I remember listening closely to distinguish whether they were pu-da-das or not. "Herb" would do the same. And, I'll always remember song "#41" off the album Crash. Carter drenches the hi-hat and ride with these rudiments, but I can't imagine the song with anyone else playing.

So here's an inch of knowledge that you can take to improve your musicality in drum playing. I didn't mention much about stick control, but it plays a role for sure. It's not cool to be sloppy. Well, being loose when playing jazz is cool, but that's another blog...



Disclaimer: I exploited this idea to show a certain concept. It's not always a good idea to go wild with this concept when playing along with other musician. Use tastefully.