There is a plethora of material available concerning how to approach double strokes in percussion. The purpose of this article is not to replace any commonly used methods and tools, but merely to offer some different perspectives and approaches. The key points of focus here are feeling strength on the second note of doubles based on their relationship to the downbeat and hearing eighth notes in triplet-based rolls.

Irish: Tried and True 

At some point in almost all percussionists' development, they will come across the old standard Irish Spring or Irish for short. This and the Sanford A/B Double Beat are probably two of the most common exercises in the rudimental exercise repertoire, just below Eight on a Hand. Here is Irish in its standard 12/8 form. What gives Irish its notoriety, among other reasons, is the fact that it places the second note of each double on a downbeat, resulting in a strong feeling instead of the second note being an afterthought to the first. With that basic precept in mind, let's move on.

The keypoints to focus on, as with any double stroke exercise are keeping the muscles as relaxed as possible while creating creating even sounds and accurate rhythms. Included in the PDF are a basic list of variations that can be added and changed to turn this basic exercise into about ten others. The variations imparted here can also be applied to other exercises (i.e. try accented variations, fill in the spaces with the other hand, play with the hands at different heights as well as same heights, etc). Almost every exercise can be morphed and warped into a mutlitude of others, so just let your mind run wild. 

I am personally a fan of exercises that are in 12/8 or 3/4 as it provides the versatility of being able to modulate between the two time signatures, thus giving the music a completely different feel. That being said, Irish can also be played and felt as a 3/4 exercise as well. This version is included in the Irish PDF. The 16ths version is not represented in the recording; that is merely there as an intellectual nugget.

Triplet Rolls: Feel the Eights 

In the same fashion as double beat exercises, there are a whole hoard of triplet diddle and triplet rolls exercises out there. Most of them focus on feeling the triplet check pattern, pulse of the leading hand (usually the right), or aiming for the second beat in a roll to simplify the thought process in cleaning or unifiying doubles. Those are all great and have proven to be useful tools for years. This concept of feeling duple eighth notes in triple-based rolls is merely another tool that will enable you to really hear the rhythm that makes up a triplet rolls: sextuplets.  

Rather than getting bogged down in a mess of verbiage, check out the supplied PDF for a small assortment of ideas that work on this concept. As with the rest of material for rudimental percussion the goal is relaxed, even, and accurate rhythms.