Paradiddles

Paradiddles

I was watching a video the other day of Ginger Baker, the famous British drummer. He was emphasizing the importance of the paradiddle, which I have neglected in my drumming life. I started practicing it again so as to become proficient in it. It is quite demanding mentally and physically: your hands have to be quick, and your brain has to retain the correct sequence of strokes (alternate double hits—you can look it up). It takes time to master. You can do it on any surface with bare hands just to get it down. I got the idea of doing paradiddles with the feet on the bass drum, which requires two foot pedals. Now that is hard, especially with the left foot—the muscle in your lower leg gets quickly fatigued—but it is quite satisfying to perform. Consulting YouTube, I found that it is a recognized technique in some drumming circles, at which some drummers are expert (I didn’t see Ginger doing it). Then it occurred to me that it would be possible to do finger paradiddles on guitar as an exercise to improve finger dexterity, so I tried that. I have become an all-round paradiddler. But I wasn’t prepared for the use of the paradiddle at the dentist. Yesterday, at my regular cleaning appointment, I started tapping my fingers on the chair as the hygienist worked on my gums and teeth—never a fun experience. I stared doing paradiddles to pass the time, but then I noticed that the activity was taking my attention away from my mouth, which really helped. It reduced the unpleasantness by a good 50%. Pain feeds off attention So, I recommend doing paradiddles at the dentist. This is my contribution to patient wellness at the dentist, a boon to mankind.

I have also been learning some new songs, particularly “Hanky-Panky” and “I Think We’re Alone Now” by none other than Tommy James and the Shandells. These were also going through my head at the dentist. I sing them both several times a day. Of course, like every other civilized person, I am well acquainted with this group’s rousing (and rowdy) “Mony Mony”, one of the greatest rock songs of all time, and I sing it frequently. But the other two songs are also excellent in their way and well worth a listen. “Hanky-Panky” just repeats the line “My baby does the hanky-panky” over and over again to a twelve-bar chord progression, interrupted only by a kind of middle-eight about seeing a pretty girl in the street. “I Think We’re Alone Now” is unashamedly adolescent and is mainly about having sex when you have nowhere to do it because you are a teenager. They are pure rock-pop, not a trace of Bob Dylan or even the Beatles—completely unsophisticated. But quite thrilling musically and enjoyable to belt out. Philosophical they are not.

Lesson: life isn’t all about philosophy; it also involves paradiddles and panky.[1]

[1] I did actually sing the hanky-panky song to two middle-aged Cuban guys, one of whom was here to fix my refrigerator and other (a chef) I was playing table tennis with. They grooved to it.