Another rudiment discussion today; we’re approaching the finale of the marching band college football season, and my “rudiments reviewed” article was a pretty fun one, so here’s a spiritual successor, featuring hybrid drum rudiments.
There are thousands of hybrid rudiments, and it’s not really practical to list the 40 most popular — most of my modern drum corps knowledge only comes from Vic Firth’s drumline channel anyway. I also recently found a neat channel called Freestyle Rudiments, run by Geoff Fry. The way he engraves the music can be a little distracting at times (ditto for Vic Firth, honestly), but he’s a great resource for learning about exercises and snare breaks.
I have 36 hybrid rudiments to discuss, because that’s the most I had the energy to research, notate, and opine on. They’re organized in the same manner as the list of 40, with a final section of cheese rudiments, and I’ll give a little explainer on each hybrid.
This is pretty much the same drum set-centric perspective as last time, so it shouldn’t be too shocking to learn that a lot of these won’t get high marks from me. But the more drumming stuff you know about, the better.
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Herta
Two single strokes followed by two single strokes at half the subdivision, e.g., two 32nd notes and two 16th notes, two 16th-note triplets and two 8th-note triplets, etc. Called a single stroke drag by some, but the term herta is much more popular, either to describe this specific sticking or the general rhythm. One of the few extraneous rudiments that the average drum set player knows about, even without having spent time in a drumline. The general phrasing is often repurposed to involve the foot, such as with Steve Gadd and related “bucket” fills.
These obviously work like drags — they should sound the same, but these have their own character, not unlike a “ruff.” I use these most often with triplets for an aggressive swinging feel, always with an accent somewhere. I rarely play them as duple rhythms, since that would follow a dotted 8th rhythm, which I regard as a rather lazy way to get syncopated.
Single Back
Alternating single stroke threes, with some sort of two-beat rhythm. Takes a little more work than you’d think to play fast, and it can help develop evenness between the hands. Using a consistent right-hand lead to play this rhythm is probably more comfortable for most drummers, and alternating doesn’t offer obvious benefits on the kit, unless it’s the only comfortable way to switch between two drums.
I don’t generally like rudiments that have particular rhythms — much like the stock flamacue, slipping this in with other licks can sound jarring and unmusical. It can flow better in triplet form, but I don’t know why I would ever need to use this specific sticking.
Puh-duh-duh
A single stroke on one hand followed by a double stroke on the other. Historically known as side triplets, and also known as diddle-lets or speed triplets, bounce triplets, and the alternative onomatopoeia puguda. This is a combination of strokes so useful, basic, and ubiquitous that it really belongs on the official rudiment list.
Eggbeater
A triple stroke on one hand followed by a double stroke on the other. Also known as a changeup. Usually played as an even rhythm, although I have seen variants where the triple stroke is written as 8th-note triplets and the double stroke is written as 8th notes, or something along those lines.
Very popular in drum corps — some writers can’t get enough of eggbeaters, and like the triple stroke roll, the visual character is part of the reason. These are not often used to great effect on the drum set, and they can sound hacky. But they have much more utility than the triple stroke roll, offering more legitimate orchestration possibilities. I just don’t find myself using them.
Irish Five
Somewhat of a variant on the eggbeater, and accents are often added to the first and last note. Unlike eggbeaters, these traditionally alternate hand-to-hand. Patterns of five already alternate, so this feels like a convoluted way to play them. Nevertheless, the sticking does open orchestration opportunities that could not be had any other way.
Much like the eggbeater, these are not known to be used to great effect on the drum set. I generally don’t like filling with triple strokes — they make me feel like I’m making my life more difficult than it needs to be.
Shirley Murphy
A puh-duh-duh followed by a triple stroke. This particular phrasing is sometimes called a 1–2‑3 Shirley Murphy, and the version I’m most familiar with has no accents. These are a lot more fun to play than alternating triple strokes, and really feel like you’re developing something sophisticated. But when filling around the drum set, it’s ultimately not any more useful than a triple stroke roll, and you’re better off replacing the triple strokes with singles (RLLRLR LRRLRL, which is more of a spin on the double paradiddle).
Kicker Paradiddle
A paradiddle with the accent moved to the second note. There are kicker varieties of the other paradiddles too, invariably with the accent on the second note; the kicker paradiddle-diddle is particularly popular in drum corps. They’re all intuitive and useful directions to take this family of rudiments.
Grandpa
A paradiddle going into an accent, played with the six-note phrasing as above. It’s a more organic version of the five-stroke roll when used repeatedly around the drums, as the five-stroke can feel mechanical. It’s another intuitive thing — a lot of drum set players probably find this idea familiar and don’t realize it even has a name. I most often use them in triplet form.
Grandma
Same thing as a grandpa, but with the first accent moved to the second note. Put another way, a kicker paradiddle into an accent, with a six-note phrasing. The accents have an interesting lope, so this is pretty easy to use as is and get some interesting motifs going, but they require more mental effort to use. Grandpas just present themselves more naturally.
Paradiddle‑a
A paradiddle with an extra note. I always call these five-a-diddles, and I think I’m the only person on the planet who uses that term. I absolutely love these, maybe too much so — they’re like a different flavor of paradiddle-diddles. These did so much heavy lifting in getting me comfortable not just with quintuplets but all manner of fives.
Parapadiddle
An accented note followed by a paradiddle. Another helpful way to get comfortable with patterns of five, but it doesn’t flow as nicely for me. Accenting all of the notes with the lead hand is a more interesting idea that does a better job of utilizing this sticking.
Another good five-note sticking would be something like RLLRL, although I don’t believe that has a common name. A puguda-pada?
Flam-Flam Accent
A flam accent with an extra flam on the starting hand. It has an arresting, mildly clunky character. Tough to use in normal playing, and I don’t like how they alternate; it’s probably easier for most drummers to just use singles, which would be a pataflafla inversion. However, a double stroke with both notes flammed is nowhere to be found on the list of 40, so this certainly feels like you’re working a specific technique. Many hybrid rudiments feel like they started as so-called “chop builders,” and this is our first textbook example of that.
Chutudda
A flam accent with the accent moved to the second note. Sometimes called an alternating flamacue, it drills a skill similar to the flamacue but is easier to use in a stock form, whereas the flamacue requires some extrapolation because of its odd five-note phrasing.
This is the point where you can assume that I would never play these rudiments back-to-back, but the chutudda is fun to throw in when ad-libbing with triplets, and I consider it a good vocabulary builder.
Dachuda
A flam accent with the flam moved to the second note, and is also known by its own flurry of alternate spellings.* The dachuda works a skill otherwise not found on the standard rudiment list, although I don’t find it as sonically interesting as the chutudda, as the accent can drown out the flam. It’s probably a skill worth developing, but I just don’t get the same mileage out of them.
Chutichuh
The flam accent modifications continue. This time, we have a flam accent with a flam added to the third note. There’s no consensus as to whether or not the extra flam has an accent; in that form, this lick is also known as an alternating pataflafla or triplet pataflafla.
With only one accent, it’s another unique skill builder — a low flam followed by an accented one. And another one that’s tough to use. I’m more intrigued by playing it in first inversion, with the accented flam “on 2.”
Choo-Choo
A paradiddle with a flam on the third note — a flam on the diddle, if you will. Also known as a parafladdle. Enjoyable to play in an almost cutesy sort of way, but it’s more fun on the kit to accent the flam, which is not the standard way of playing the choo-choo. Still, I will favor a flam on the diddle over the flam paradiddle any day.
There are a number of hybrids related to the choo-choo, including the chugga choo-choo (an accented flam on 1 and a low flam on 3), the double choo-choo (low flams on 3 and 4), and the double chugga choo-choo (accented flam on 1, low flams on 3 and 4).
Flam Drag Paradiddle
Basically, what it sounds like. While I don’t care for the normal flam paradiddle at all, these feel like a slightly more legitimate reason to play that sort of idea. Still, they’re certainly not a big part of my vocabulary.
Five-Stroke Flammed Mill
A single flammed mill going into a five-stroke roll. One of my own specialties, actually — I don’t believe these are widely used, and I’m not sure what else we would call it. I like the single flammed mill a lot, and this is a fun way to beef it up.
Swiss Kick
A Swiss triplet with the accent on the last note. While it presents a similar problem to the dachuda, I find these much more pleasant to play, even though I don’t use them to great effect.
Swiss Drag
The rhythm of a flam drag, played with Swiss Army triplet sticking. Also known as a one-hand flam drag. One of my favorite hybrids — I use and almost rely on these all the time.
Blushda
The rhythm of a flam drag, played with a shuffle sticking. Once a hip item on the drum set that’s now seen as being a bit dull and uninspired. Which is fine; I never like playing these compared to the Swiss drag, and if the blushda is a cliché, it makes me value the Swiss drag even more. One of the few hybrids that is not common in drum corps.
Flam Tap Swiss
A flam tap followed by a Swiss Army triplet pattern, played as five even notes. When played backwards, it’s known as a Swiss-a-diddle. Fun to play, but it’s a little dense to use well on the kit. One of many flam patterns that ultimately gets filed under “David Garibaldi ride bell stuff, use with caution.”
Double Flam Drag
A five-note flam drag, with a second drag on the fourth note. A more proper name would be a flam double drag. AKA a float flam drag. It should be a good quintuplet vocab builder, and yet, there’s something off about these. In my normal playing, I rarely play quintuplets as singles unless I’m using them for pure speed; I’m usually using some sort of mixed sticking, and that’s probably why these don’t do it for me.
Flam Flam Drag
It’s a flam. And then another flam. And then a drag. And the tap. Flam flam drag. Or maybe flam flam drag.
Sorry, I’m starting to lose it a bit. Anyhoo, I don’t play the normal flam drag very often, as the Swiss drag can do pretty much anything I would do with the flam drag. You feel large and in charge playing these on a practice pad. On the drums, it’s slightly more interesting than the flam flam accent, while only being slightly more annoying.
Malf
A backwards flam, with the grace note after the primary. It’s not unlike an old French rudiment called the charge stroke, but the modern “malf” is associated with American DCI playing. There are interesting visual things you can leverage with the malf, but its true musical utility is pretty low, and you’re unlikely to see them outside of exercises.
Dragalet & Dragateenth
Singles with an accented drag every three notes in the case of the draglet, or every four in the case of a dragateenth. I included these to note that I don’t like accenting drags. So… pass.
Drag-uh-duh
The puh-duh-duh, but with a drag on the first note. I believe I have seen these called diddle drags somewhere. There was a period back in high school when I thought this idea was neat, but it’s a bit goofy in practice. On the quads, there’s a specific orchestration called a candy apple that plays the drag on one drum with the diddle scraping over two drums.
Book Report
A single dragadiddle with a flam added to the third note, and a drag added to the fourth note, creating something of a roll as the pattern restarts. Equal parts popular and difficult, it’s the kind of stereotypical drum corps mayhem that scares a lot of people away.
I don’t enjoy the single dragadiddle at all, and book reports don’t elevate them much for me — out of all the hybrids so far, the book report is really the one that would make a drum set player stare at it wide-eyed, and it’s easy to look at one of these and not know how it would be useful. Since book reports alternate hand to hand, just playing one of these can be an ordeal.
Fake Report
The book report, but played with singles. It’s much more pleasant to play and easier to use, but it still finds itself in that David Garibaldi category. Accenting drags will always sound funny to me.
Cheese(let)
A flam on a fast double — I think of these as a flam on a drag, but others think of them as a flam on a “diddle.” Historically known as flags or drams until Tom Float started calling it a cheese, and the drum corps world never looked back. The above phrasing is known as a cheese flam accent, or a cheese-let; you would never really play cheeses in isolation the way flams often are.
Cheeses are seen as an important gateway to learning gnarly hybrids, and they’re a fundamental skill for anyone interested in DCI drumming. Unfortunately, I have always struggled to make these feel good and sound good. I think a lot of it comes from the aforementioned “accenting a drag” business. The lower tuning of a rock drum set does not help.
Cheese Chutudda & Cheese Dachuda
Two of our flam accent variations, cheesed. The cheese chutudda has more traditional drag-like phrasing, and it is a more musical way to use the cheese. The cheese dachuda, surprisingly, is not much more difficult to play than the normal dachuda, and unsurprisingly, not much more likable for me.
Cheese Chutichuh
You get the idea, I’m sure. Alternatively spelled cheese chut-a-chu, it’s an archetypal gnarly drum corps lick. For those not in a drumline, it will rarely leave the practice pad. Moving the accent to the last note is sometimes called a cheese-cha, depending on who you ask. Keeping the accent on the first note while playing flam • cheese • tap is called chut-cheese… which sometimes has a second accent on the cheese, depending on who you ask. Someone should really sort this out…
Flam Five
A five-stroke roll with a flam added to the start. For whatever reason, the most popular way to play these in drum corps is to move the accent from the end of the roll to the beginning, which feels odd to me, as that’s not traditional short-roll phrasing. I tend to call that version a DCI flam five.
Flam fives actually feel more natural to me than cheeses, and I quite like keeping the accent at the end of the roll. Sadly, its tempo range is limited unless your drums are dry and cranked pretty high — it seems like the flam five is the perfect distillation of how a lot of dense, articulate drum corps playing just doesn’t translate to the timbre of the typical drum set.
Cheese Invert
Inverted flam taps, but cheeses instead of flams. Pretty nasty. Feels unhealthy to play.
* ^ These include dachuda, duchudda, tajada, tu-chada, tachuta, and tachada.
