That Sound a Paradiddle

That precise repeated tapping on the vibes, like a percussionist, a drum roll, there it is again, that distinctive sound.  There’s a word for this.  I can imagine a friend who is a drummer, say the word, but I can’t find it in my noggin.  So I go to look on line and search for “taps on a drum” and what I think the word was “peterol”  I know that’s not it but I hope that it will force a result of the word I’m after.  It doesn't.  I search instead then for "drum practice vocabulary."  The fourth result down, from “free drum lessons .com”  is "drumming vocabulary."  That seems promising.

I begin to scroll down past the A’s “accent”, “Afro-Cuban”, “American grip” and I am served up an ad for drum lessons that overwhelms the page.  I click “no thanks.”  Over to the side is the smiling face of an aged rocker.  He’s offering a “Master Class.”  For the briefest of seconds I imagine actually sitting down and beginning the process of learning to drum.  Then, I decide the scrolling is taking too long and I advance down to the P’s. 

There are only three words there.  No.  Not “practice pad” nor “piccolo snare,” but paradiddle.  It’s not what the echo in my mind had been trying to find.  But as soon as I see it I can hear him saying it. Yes.  That’s the term.  Do you know what a paradiddle is?  I did not.  As soon as I read it over and reimagined the sound from the song, which I had in my mind on the vibes, I acknowledged that it would not be accurate to call that sound a “paradiddle.”

“A rudiment played with two sticks to develop independence with your hands. The paradiddle is an 8 note pattern that is played: R L R R L R L L. This rudiment can be played in beats, fills, and other patterns to spice things up. One of the most popular rudiments to learn.”

I practice a paradiddle on my legs with my hands.  It isn’t easy.  I’ll have to listen for it now that that know what to listen for.  Bobby Hutcherson the artist in question, has a vibe technique where he goes up very high and performs a roll.  Let’s just call it a roll.  Like a drum roll, that is characteristic of him and as soon as I heard the sound last night, I knew it was him.  Perhaps I can find him paradiddling on some other song. 

 

I note that searching for information is very different now that it was before the internet.  Would I have bothered to find “paradiddle?”  Where would it have been?  The dictionary is a big place.  There are a lot of “Ps”.  Certainly more than three choices.  And, in twenty more years this will no doubt be a quaint remembrance of this clumsy, interim process of search before such capacity was simply implanted with the internet accessible within the noggin itself. 

Friday, 01/25/19