Strictly Technique Pataflafla Hemiolas Straight and Alternating Versions Over Half-Note Triplets by Bill Bachman This month we’re going to add the pataflafla (a rudiment consisting of two adjacent flams) to some two-accent hemiola patterns to give us a rhythmic and rudimental challenge. In its most basic form, a hemiola is a pattern based on the three-against-two polyrhythm that creates a new pulse over the original tempo. For these exercises we’ll use an accent pattern based on the half-note triplet. A half-note triplet is three half notes taking the place of two, so in the exercises there will be three half-note triplets played within a bar of 4/4 time. An easy way to uncover this rhythm is to play a bar of 8th-note triplets in 4/4 and accent every fourth note. If you then add a second accent adjacent to the first, you’ll have the accent pattern that we’re going to […]