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Making Music With Mechanisms (PADPED)
Last updated: May 29th, 2026 |
Putting The “PADPED” Patterns Behind Organic Chemistry Mechanisms To Music
My friend Harry has an annoying habit. When we’re hanging out, every once in awhile, he’ll put on a serious face and say he has something very important to tell me. Then, when he has my attention, he breaks out that annoying Bryan Adams song that begins with “Pleeease forgive me…”. He thinks this is hilarious. While it *is* funny watching a metrosexual Korean dude do a bad Bryan Adams impression it is also damn annoying because then I have that stupid song in my head for the next few days.
Like I do now. Anyway, this is all to prove a point.
What if remembering an organic chemistry mechanism was as easy as remembering an annoying song?
We’ve talked before about the “hidden” similarity several organic chemistry reactions have in their mechanisms – for example, this post on the PAPED mechanism (actually PADPED if you divide the “proton transfer” in the middle into separate deprotonation/protonation steps).
Words and images only get you so far.
So I thought – wouldn’t it be cool if each step could also be illustrated with musical notes, where each step is mapped out onto a keyboard?
The result is this video. Not only do you learn 8 mechanisms in the time it takes to learn one, but remembering the key pattern is as easy as remembering a song.
[Mechanisms covered: Fischer esterification, ester hydrolysis, amide hydrolysis, imine hydrolysis, imine formation, enamine formation, enamine hydrolysis, anhydride formation].
Naively thought this video would take 2 hours to make. Ended up taking more than 10.
So if you find this video useful – please encourage further videos with an upvote, share, or comment.
P.S. Happy birthday Harry : – )
00 General Chemistry Review
01 Bonding, Structure, and Resonance
02 Acid Base Reactions
03 Alkanes and Nomenclature
04 Conformations and Cycloalkanes
05 A Primer On Organic Reactions
06 Free Radical Reactions
07 Stereochemistry and Chirality
08 Substitution Reactions
09 Elimination Reactions
10 Rearrangements
11 SN1/SN2/E1/E2 Decision
12 Alkene Reactions
13 Alkyne Reactions
14 Alcohols, Epoxides and Ethers
15 Organometallics
16 Spectroscopy
17 Dienes and MO Theory
18 Aromaticity
19 Reactions of Aromatic Molecules
20 Aldehydes and Ketones
21 Carboxylic Acid Derivatives
- Nucleophilic Acyl Substitution (With Negatively Charged Nucleophiles)
- Addition-Elimination Mechanisms With Neutral Nucleophiles (Including Acid Catalysis)
- Basic Hydrolysis of Esters: Saponification
- Transesterification
- Proton Transfer
- Fischer Esterification: Carboxylic Acid to Ester Under Acidic Conditions
- Lithium Aluminum Hydride (LiAlH4) For Reduction of Carboxylic Acid Derivatives
- LiAlH[Ot-Bu]3 For The Reduction of Acid Halides To Aldehydes
- Di-isobutyl Aluminum Hydride (DIBAL) For The Partial Reduction of Esters and Nitriles
- Amide Hydrolysis
- Thionyl Chloride (SOCl2) And Conversion of Carboxylic Acids to Acid Halides
- Diazomethane (CH2N2)
- Carbonyl Chemistry: Learn Six Mechanisms For the Price Of One
- Making Music With Mechanisms (PADPED)
- Carboxylic Acid Derivatives Practice Questions
You are an inspiration for all teachers out there. ..I am so thankful for your blog !
Thank you
you write just like matthew berry, he’s the fantasy guru on ESPN and he also wrote some of Married With Children(Great Show Man). Your website is so helpful, I show it to my professor all the time and he shows it during lectures now. It’s Great, thank you so much
If I wrote about fantasy sports and Matthew Berry wrote about organic chemistry, would I still write like him and would he still write like me?
#whatisthesoundofonehandclapping
This is the organic chemistry lesson of the century.