# Drummers: Is There Really A Difference? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 19, 2015, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drummers-is-there-really-a-difference/731735 "2015-09-19T04:36:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Jinx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Jinx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jinx)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2015, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drummers-is-there-really-a-difference/731735/1 "2015-09-19T04:36:20Z")
Just a neophyte… Why is a paradiddle R-L-RR-L-R-LL as opposed to R-L-R-L-R-L-R-L? Is there really a difference? Perhaps, it is not the rhythm itself, but it leaves the drummer in the wrong position for what follows? When answering, consider one learning on one drum vs. a full set. Maybe the answer is obvious on a full drum set? Also, in rock n roll, do you really hear his? I swear all I hear is shortened versions, like R-L-R-L, at best. You may say I am crazy, but perhaps you can mention a song with an obvious paradiddle, esp in an intro before it is washed out by other instruments? ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2015, 5:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drummers-is-there-really-a-difference/731735/2 "2015-09-19T05:24:36Z")
I’m only a dicking-around drummer (keys are my instrument, but I bang on the drums most days), but paradiddles can be played around the set, of course, so they don’t all have to be on the same drum. Just look up “paradiddle groove” on Youtube. They develop hand and wrist control, and they do have a different feel (to me) than L-R-L-R even when played on the same drum. A pretty famous example of a fill based around the paradiddle (although slightly modified) is in “Sultans of Swing,” [where around 4:25](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xo-J1wf2KHc) he plays a modified paradiddle fill between the ride and the snare. Or [here’s the legendary Steve Gadd](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5mMlIik4SDg) playing a hi-hat snare groove that includes paradiddle fills. These can be done all around the kit, and even between the hands and feet (there’s some popular hard rock song from the last 20 years that I’m blanking on that has a paradiddle between the feet and snare.) It’s a cool and useful musical rudiment, and it’s great at developing stick control. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2015, 5:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drummers-is-there-really-a-difference/731735/3 "2015-09-19T05:28:35Z")
Ah, it’s the Stone Temple Pilots [“Vaseline” that I’m thinking of](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ht672-wYelc). At the chorus, the drums go into a paradiddle groove that starts on the kick and alternates with the snare (so KSKK SKSS). ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2015, 5:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drummers-is-there-really-a-difference/731735/4 "2015-09-19T05:49:03Z")
I got one more for ya. “Peggy Sue” is pretty much all paradiddles throughout. See [this interview with the drummer](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=odcnqWYLu_g). ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2015, 6:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drummers-is-there-really-a-difference/731735/5 "2015-09-19T06:01:05Z")
I’ll be carnsarned! I thought “paradiddle” was a nonsense word Johnny Hart had made up for an old B.C. strip! I just Googled, and the other terms he used are also real! “Flamadiddle” and “Radamacue” (or “Ratamacue.” Hart spelled it with a “d.”) Nothing to add here, other than that I’ve just had some ignorance fought that I didn’t even know I had! ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2015, 6:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drummers-is-there-really-a-difference/731735/6 "2015-09-19T06:19:43Z")
> [@Trinopus](#): > > I’ll be carnsarned! I thought “paradiddle” was a nonsense word Johnny Hart had made up for an old B.C. strip! I just Googled, and the other terms he used are also real! “Flamadiddle” and “Radamacue” (or “Ratamacue.” Hart spelled it with a “d.”) > > Nothing to add here, other than that I’ve just had some ignorance fought that I didn’t even know I had! There’s also the paradiddle diddle (RLRRLL) and the double paradiddle (RLRLRR LRLRLL) and triple paradiddle (RLRLRLRR LRLRLRLL) that are part of the 40 standard drum rudiments. I first learned of the paradiddle and ratamacue way back when I was a wee tot watching Mister Rogers Neighborhood. I wonder if Youtube has the episode. _Goes to check_. Hmmm…I can’t seem to find it, but I do remember him vocalizing the ratamacue as “It’s a ratamacue…it’s a ratamacue…it’s a ratamacue.” ---
**Author:** ![minlokwat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/minlokwat/32/2844_2.png) [@minlokwat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/minlokwat)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2015, 12:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drummers-is-there-really-a-difference/731735/7 "2015-09-19T12:50:10Z")
I’d say that a straight up RLRL beat has a stiffer, more mechanical feel to it. If that’s what you’re going for, then have at it. A paradiddle beat is by its nature designed to sound a bit different. It’s as if you’ve added a touch of swing to the beat and to those with a discerning ear can note the change in rhythm which offers just that-- a nuanced departure from the more mechanical sense of time keeping. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2015, 5:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drummers-is-there-really-a-difference/731735/8 "2015-09-20T05:29:33Z")
I always thought it was about using the bounce instead of restriking. That will sound different. That said, when I fake percussion on my keyboard, I very often cheat this stuff. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2015, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drummers-is-there-really-a-difference/731735/9 "2015-09-20T16:16:35Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > I always thought it was about using the bounce instead of restriking. That will sound different. It really depends on the speed you’re playing, and some drummers even at high speeds try to work small wrist strokes for their doubles rather than controlled rebounding. The other nice thing paradiddles do for you is that they can allow for a little more freedom of movement around the kit if you’re doing a flurry of 16th notes. Say you’re doing a single stroke 16th note roll on the snare and you want to move around the kit to accent every beat. If you use RLRL sticking the whole way, your accents will all be played with the right hand and you only have one sixteenth note time to get it into position for the accent. If you use RLRR LRLRR sticking, you alternate right and left hand for the accent, and you now have two sixteenth notes to get the appropriate hand into position for the accent strike. So if, say, I want to alternate a crash cymbal on my right with a crash cymbal on my left, it’s easier to paradiddle it than to single stroke it. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2015, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drummers-is-there-really-a-difference/731735/10 "2015-09-20T18:04:57Z")
That should be RLRR LRLL above, of course, not LRLRR, which I blame on fat fingers or something. No idea where that came from. ---
**Author:** ![mack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b19c9b/32.png) [@mack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mack)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2015, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drummers-is-there-really-a-difference/731735/11 "2015-09-21T00:47:07Z")
When I started playing, one of the values of paradiddles was creating independence between my left and right hands. The natural thing to do is RLRL and paradiddles make you work differently. I broke down a lot of my really fast snare drum work and it’s a lot of paradiddles and double paradiddles. Slowed down double paradiddles have a nice 6 feel like if you go **R** lrlrr-l **R** l **R** ll with your left on the snare and your right on the bell of the cymbal or whatever (bolded Rs are accented), for instance.