The Most Important Sticking Ever?

Watch any drummer in any situation -- especially during a drum solo -- and you'll probably see a rather ordinary figure. And you'll see it a lot. That's because the sticking is simple, versatile, easily executed, and very effective … and it‘s a lot of fun to play.

It's this one: RLL (or LRR if you prefer). 

Seriously, Right-Left-Left. Count it as triplets and then just keep doing it: RLL RLL RLL RLL. Boy is that useful! And its variations -- LRR, RRL, LLR -- can be just as useful. Plus , it's real easy way to fake speed.

Buying Time
You probably don't think of diddles as strategic, but they are. The diddle cleverly gives the other hand time to move around, and you can use that time to good effect because it gives you time to move the single stroke around the set. Play the single stroke on a cymbal and the diddle on the snare. Move the single stroke from drum to drum. Do the Buddy Rich thing and play singles on alternate crash cymbals.

A Poly Approach
If you play the pattern as 16th notes rather than triplets, you end up with a cross rhythm with a 3-against-4 pattern: RLLR / LLRL / LRLL / RLLR. In this type of polyrhythm, an 'implied pulse' moves seductively in and out of the time.

Free Samples
There are a number of lines in books like G.L. Stone’s Stick Control that take advantage of this pattern, and many of the figures can be easily applied in a jazz or swing environment or any style of music. Here are a few lines to get you started.

Stick Control  
Page 7, lines 43-44 
Page 9, lines 65-68

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Diddle - Two strokes with the same hand, e.g. the various paradiddles begin with single strokes and end with a diddle. Can also refer to interpolating a double stroke where a single stroke would normally be.