Paradiddaloid 1 – herta hybrid rudiment / herta + two 8th notes

Paradiddaloid 1 YouTube

Welcome to the first in a series of tutorials dedicated to the paradiddaloid. While I am certain that the "paradiddaloid" is actually a thing, and that countless others have explored it, there is a certain satisfaction that comes from "inventing" something that already exists. And since I can't find it on the internet ("two patterns that alternate like a paradiddle"...seriously? no results?), I've decided to give it a name.

Many years ago, I had a similar experience with the Swiss army triplet. With my sticks poised over a marching snare drum, I tensed my arms and simply willed them to do something new. When I heard the beautiful flammed triplet emerge, I couldn't stop for fear that I would not be able to repeat it, as I had no idea what the sticks were actually doing. Once fatigue set in and I was forced to stop, I immediately started again and tried to recreate the magical wonder. When I was confident that I could reproduce it consistently, I rushed excitedly to my drum instructor to show off my invention. "Oh, that's a Swiss triplet – you can play it backwards too." Initially devastated, I soon realized that it was far more satisfying to stumble across this rudiment than to be taught how to play it.

In that spirit, let's begin with my original paradiddaloid attempt from about 10 years ago. I don't recall how the paradiddaloid concept came to me, but I do remember the conscious effort of selecting patterns and stitching them together in my mind. By this time I had ventured beyond the Swiss triplet and had become fixated on another beautiful rudiment, the herta.

Pattern A

Pattern A is a herta. The herta is a versatile hybrid rudiment that consists of two sixteenth notes followed by two eighth notes, played with alternate sticking. It is my favorite hybrid rudiment (and quite possibly the only hybrid rudiment I know how to play) because it allows me to mimic speed and stamina when in fact I have neither. The herta naturally gravitates to a triplet structure, but I think the real magic happens when it is spread out so that consecutive hertas extend over the bar line. And that's exactly what we'll do here:

Pattern B

Pattern B is a herta with two additional eighth notes tacked on. This is interesting because it makes Pattern B longer than Pattern A.

Paradiddaloid

To create a paradiddaloid, we need to plug patterns A and B into our magic formula, ABAABABB. This is called paradiddalization (see Paradiddaloid 101: Fundamentals of Paradiddalization).

Here is our paradiddaloid product. Aim for about 250 bpm with alternate sticking throughout. It lands nicely on the downbeat.

I really like the jarring effect of having patterns with different lengths. What are your thoughts? Requesting feedback via comments or email.

This paradiddaloid also works well, if not better, by displacing the rhythm and leading with the opposite hand:

Any tenor players out there? Here's what it looks like on the quads:

You could also experiment with accents, or anything else that comes to mind. Enjoy!