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or are you looking for cymbal patterns to play in isolation? a lot of the stuff that steve smith, buddy rich and louis bellson do [did], were different sticking patterns/rudiments on the hi-hat. that stuff's great, but i think of it as something you do more in the context of a solo or "exhibition" playing, or in a short section of a tune. it might be good to start out with stuff that's played in the context of a groove. what you are doing with moving the paradiddles around the kit and what-not is good, too.

i don't know what level you're at, so if this is beneath you, i apologize, but for general rocking out, i got a lot out of my first teacher's lessons, which basically had me playing [insert kick pattern here, add 2 & 4 on snare] with every possible 16th note permutation played on the ride cymbal. so say you start out playing all 16ths on the cymbal with whatever rock kick/snare pattern you want for 4 or 8 bars. then play the next 4 or 8 bars and just play the first 3 16th notes on the cymbal all the way through, then play the first 2 16ths for 4 or 8 bars. pick whatever partials you want. it starts to get tricky when the cymbal is falling in the same place as the kick or snare [this is a good exercise, even though it doesn't always sound good. it's a brain workout].

so it's like: groove and then play

xxxx
xxx_
xx_ _
x_ _ _
xx_x
_xx_
_x_x
_ _ xx

on the ride. [the _ is where you don't play anything.]

another variant is to play up and downbeats on the bell. so you can just do a straight rock groove on bass/snare, then play the cymbal on the "&" of each bar. i love upbeats on the bell; makes everything groove. sounds great for rock.

you can also play the above "x" variants i showed with the bell on the last "x" or at other "x" points. again, not everything will sound good musically, but it's good practice.


you can do the same thing with the hats. a nice variant is opening the hats slightly on the "&" of the 3rd 16th and leaving out the last 16th. this gives a nice disco feel. play this using the midsection of the stick [err--the shaft]. gives a nice sound with body.

another cool thing is "rocking 16ths". that's just playing regular 16th notes on the hats using a rocking motion, so the tip of the stick extends above the hats, and then comes down and the bead of the stick lands on the hats. when you play this kind of uptempo it sounds killer. it's a real R&B kinda vibe. same with the other hat exercise i just stated above.

i think you said you read music some, so pick up tommy igoe's "groove essentials" books. the last one he put out has like 7 zillion grooves that change up the cymbal pattern, using the bell or open hats to lovely groovalicious effect. it's one of my favorite books for getting inspired with stuff like that. here's an example of the kinda stuff you get. basically, he shows you a ton of 'variations on a theme' where only one or two notes are played differently than the exercise before, but you can really hear the sonic difference.

http://www.vicfirth.com/education/drumset/GrooveEssentials.html


basically, playing 16th-note exercises on any part of the drum is how my first teach showed me how to build a little bit of vocabulary. you can apply this stuff to almost any straight-ahead rock or funk groove--though the funk stuff gets more involved and you can go crazy with the beat displacement thing. start simple, i say.

as for where to hit the stick, i suppose one can do whatever, but i think it makes sense to just get overall good technique. but you can start by just whacking the bell with the butt of the stick on quarters and eighth notes on the upbeat. that's a beefy sound! also try using different sticks. i switched to peter erskine sticks and was really surprised with what a different sound i got.

if you're still studying with wertico, ask him to hip you to all this. the hell, man--the lessons cost enough!

you're welcome. i do a terrible job of explaining things online. i'd make a lousy music teacher. it's easier to show these things in person and talk about it. but hopefully you'll get the idea!

you mean me, crush? it's neither, really--the x's just represent a bar of 16th notes. the _'s are rests.