In drumming, in particular using the snare drum, there are these things called “rudiments”. A rudiment is a basic pattern one learns to build a kind of drumming vocabulary. There are several national and international drumming organizations that recognize the most important rudiments, and currently there are at least 40 accepted rudiments. These range from very basic rudiments, such as the “Single Stroke Roll” which is just an alternating left-right-left-right pattern, to much more complicated patterns.
What’s fascinating about rudiments is their history. They can be traced back to 16th and 17th century Swiss pikeman, who organized into a marching unit called a phalanx. Because the marching patterns were so complicated, and the pikes so cumbersome, commanders needed a way to communicate to the pikeman how to organize and what to do. They set up drummers to drum patterns that could be heard from a long distance to signal to the pikeman what to do.
A lot of the rudiments have names that supposedly sound a little like what they are, such as the flam, ratamacue, and paradiddle. But then there’s the “pataflafla” which just makes me embarrassed to even have to learn it. In order to lend credibility to this rudiment, and by extension all the rudiments, I hereby rename this rudiment the “Knuckle Breaker” because it feels that way when you’re trying to bang it out.
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