Steve Smith plays “Paradiddle Johnnie“ at 110BPM

Steve plays Charles Wilcoxon’s “Paradiddle Johnnie” at 110BPM, first on the snare drum and then on the drumset, incorporating improvisation inspired by the written solo. The full title of the Wilcoxon book is “Modern Rudimental Swing Solos for the Advanced Drummer.” Steve interprets that to mean the solos were written to swing and not be played in the military tradition. “Stick Control“ author George Lawrence Stone states in his book “Technique of Percussion“ (a collection of his columns written for the International Musician Magazine), “The ancient drummer played his marching drumbeats at the cadence of 110 steps to the minute. The government standard marching cadence today is set at 120. If a drumbeat is not too involved a fair performer can play it at 128 or over, but the lilt and rhythm are apt to be lost at such speeds, even though the drummer may be able to cram in the rudiments involved.” Steve’s experiments and discoveries regarding rudiments and tempo aligns with S