Single Paradiddle

What the single paradiddle is

Read it, hear it, and slow it down until it is even.

Two single strokes then a double — "pa-ra-did-dle" — which flips the leading hand every group, so it is the rudiment that teaches your hands to swap roles without a gap. That is why it turns up constantly in fills and hi-hat patterns: it lets you start a figure with either hand. Accent the first note of each group so the sticking has an audible shape, and keep the two diddle strokes exactly level with each other.

How to practice it

• Say it out loud while you play — "pa-ra-did-dle" maps exactly onto RLRR, and the mouth keeps the hands honest.
• Accent only the first note of each group. If the diddle gets louder as the tempo rises you are letting the rebound run away with you.
• Once it is even, move the accented note to the floor tom and leave the other three on the snare. That single change turns the rudiment into a usable fill.
• Practice it starting left as well. Because the paradiddle swaps leading hand anyway, drummers wrongly assume they don't need to — then find they can only start a fill with the right.

Where it leads

The single paradiddle belongs to the diddle rudiments family, and it feeds directly into the double and triple paradiddles, the paradiddle-diddle, and almost every linear fill on the kit. Get it even at a slow tempo before you move on — every rudiment built on top of it inherits whatever unevenness you leave here.

Reading the notation above

Both hands play the snare drum, so every notehead sits in the third space of the staff and the sticking cells underneath tell you which hand plays which note, with the count under every stroke. Capital letters are full strokes; small raised letters are grace notes. There are no grace notes in this rudiment, so every note is a full stroke. The > marks above the staff are accents: hit those notes harder. Full details in the drum notation guide.

Tempo ladder

Tap a rung to set the speed. Play 8 clean loops before moving up.