Pentadiddle Shuffle

The 5 domain had some undiscovered musical entities. But recent research has revealed the Pentadiddle Shuffle beat. It is like the 3 domain shuffle that is used in Rocky Mountain Way and a thousand other songs.This common shuffle is also called a boogie. It is identifiable from its grouping of pairs of notes, using uneven time spans for groups and rests. Another word that applies is lilting. The shuffle uses a grace note before the one beat. The pairing of the two hits has become an institution.

Here is the video with an audio track of this shuffle with five hits per beat.


Here is the sheet music:







Sound Pressure Waves

The shuffle with 3 or 5 hits per beat is also possible with 7 hits per beat, producing a longer rest between pairs of bass drum hits. Please consider that the shuffle has an uneven rest time versus beat group time. In the standard 3 shuffle, the rest takes 33% of a bar but for the 5 shuffle it is 40%. In other words, the new shuffle has more rest time between pairs of bass drum hits.

Comparison of Standard 3 Shuffle Versus the New 5 Shuffle

Only bass drums are shown in this sheet music. The top line is played alone or the bottom line is played alone to compare how similar the two shuffle beats are. One shuffle places the grace note 60% into each bar and the other shuffle places it at the time 66% into each bar. In this picture of four hits, the first is the "one beat" the second is the grace note before the third hit, which is a "one beat". The fourth hit is a grace note before the repeated phrase.


Music Theory Planning

A melody is being invented to fit onto the 5 beat rhythm. In the picture of the sheet music comparing the standard shuffle versus the Pentadiddle Shuffle, it is seen that two extra rests are separating the bass drum notes. Those rests will be notes for the melody to produce trills and dips in the melody of the shuffle.

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