Do You Know How To Shuffle

Blues Drummer

Are you a beginning drummer?  Are you a seasoned veteran looking to expand his skills?   No matter what the skill level or what style of drumming you play, do you know how to Shuffle? 

John Bonham (Led Zeppelin), Jeff Porcaro (Toto), Bernard Purdie, Stevie Wonder, and most of the various drummers that played with the group Steely Dan including Jeff Porcaro, Bernard Purdie and Steve Gadd (See this article: The Drummers of Steely Dan for full list of Steely Dan drummers) can all shuffle. 

The Shuffle is ingrained in most all music genres through-out history. In this article I provide an overview of the shuffle and provide what you need to add learn and apply this technique to improve your drumming skill.

The Shuffle

The shuffle is a pattern that is applied to the playing triplets. The triplets are played in what is called "swing" or "swung" and according to Wikipedia Swing (jazz performance style), it is “...notes with equal written time values are performed with unequal durations, usually as alternating long and short.” Triplets however, are played in a 4/4 time signature, meaning that there are eight eighth notes to the measure and a max of 24 beats (eighth note x 3 beats = 24 beats); see Triplets Example image below. Unfortunately there is math in music.

However, in order to make triplets shuffle or "swung", the notes are played in a 12/8 time signature; meaning that there are 12 eighth notes in a measure or simply just 12 beats per measure. If you need a refresher on what an eighth note please check out my Musical Theory and Applying Theory articles and for triplets take a look at my Eighth Note Triplets article.

Triplets Example

Shuffle Example

As you will notice while comparing the two examples images above, the shuffle has twelve notes per the measure, however the middle note is left out or note played. This what is meant by the note is swung, leaving out a note.

There are several types of shuffles patterns that have been developed over the years, some of the most notable are “The Purdie Shuffle” developed by Bernard Purdie, the Melbourne Shuffle and the Rosanna Shuffle or Jeff Porcaro Shuffle developed by Jeff Pocaro. John Bonham also used a lot of triplets in his technique and is noted for using them on the kick drum. See the resource section at the end of the article for links that will provide you more information on shuffles and drummers listed above or click on the links included above.

Below I've listed a couple songs that are on YouTube that utilize the shuffle as the groove of the song:

Toto - Hold The Line

Stevie Wonder - Higher Ground 

Steely Dan - Black Friday 

Now lets move on and I will provide the same exercises that my instructor Jack Hall provided to me at my lesson at his studio at the Willis Music Store here in Louisville Ky.

Prerequisites   

 

There is no real prerequisite for this lesson however it is recommend that you have worked with triplets.

In my previous article Eighth Note Triplets I cover everything that you will need to get you going with triplet. If you find the below exercises to difficult to work through. Link to previous article: Eighth Note Triplets.

Lesson Objectives

To build upon the triplets article and introduce the shuffle in a 12/8 time signature a long with providing exercises that assist in developing the technique.

PDF document is now available for downloading: Shuffles

Exercises

A note about the notation and how to count shuffles in 12/8 time verses the eighth note triplets in in 4/4 time.  Since there are 12 eighth notes in a measure, some people will count them 1, 2, 3, etc to 12. Doing it this way becomes somewhat awkward when you get the 10, 11 and 12 counts.  A much better way that my instructor introduced me to is to count them,  1 to 6 and 1 to 6 as in the first example image below Shuffle Exercise 1 or line one of the PDF document.

The first example starts out with three notes with the first being a hi-hat and kick drum on the count of one and hi-hat on the count of two and three.  This is followed by the second set of triplets starting with the count of four which is a hi-hat and snare drum followed by hi-hat on the count of 5 and 6.  The measure is subdivided so the same two sets of triplets repeat the same beats.

Shuffle Exercise 1

The second exercise is the built upon the first and there is an added kick drum on the count of 3 and the second count of 3.

Shuffle Exercise 2

The third exercise is built upon the first two exercises with an added kick drum on both the count of six.

Shuffle Exercise 3

The forth exercise again builds on the previous exercises, but this time the kick drum on both counts of six is moved to the count of five.

Shuffle Exercise 4

The fifth exercise builds upon the previous exercise, but this time the kick drums on the counts of 1 and 3 are removed and replaced with a kick on both counts of 2.
 

Shuffle Exercise 5

The sixth exercise once is similar to the fifth exercise, but this time we add another kick drum to both counts of 3.

Shuffle Exercise 6

The seventh exercise is where things change up and the true shuffle comes into play.  As you will notice in the exercise below, it looks like the first exercise, however the second and fifth notes are removed on the hi-hat line.  This is what gives the triplets that swung feel that was discussed earlier.  Basically we are playing two beats, then skip a beat and then play two beats on the hi-hat.  Like the first exercise, the kick drum in on the beats of one and the snare drum on the beat of four and like the exercises, the measure is subdivided.

Shuffle Exercise 7

The eighth exercise starts the repeat of building off the previous with an added kick drum on both counts of 3.

Shuffle Exercise 8

The ninth exercise only difference from the eighth is that there is a added kick drum on both counts of six.

Shuffle Exercise 9

The tenth exercise, we change the feel quite a bit by first removing the kick drum on the counts of six and we place a snare on the counts of two.

Shuffle Exercise 10

The eleventh exercise once again builds upon the previous by adding back the kick drum that appeared on the counts of six in the ninth exercise.

Shuffle Exercise 11

The final exercise (twelve) removes the kick drum on the counts of 1.

Shuffle Exercise 12

Your Assignment

 

It's your turn now!  Download the accompanying exercises here: PDF. Now take it to the kit and start working on your shuffle.  By learning this technique, it will add depth and dimension and some serious skills and greatly expand the type of music that you will be able to play. Remember to start out slowly and gradually increase your speed when and only when you can play them without errors and comfortably.  Always use a metronome so that you can hear the spacing between the notes and make sure that each note sounds evenly.
 
This wraps up another lesson, which built upon my previous article eighth note triplets and presented another technique to boost your skills behind the drum kit.  Keep it real and about the music! Until next time--Thanks for reading!

Resources

1. Wikipedia Swing (jazz performance style) Article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swing_%28jazz_performance_style%29

2. Bernard Purdie Shuffle by Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernard_Purdie

3. Melbourne Shuffle by Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melbourne_Shuffle

4. Rosanna Shuffle or Jeff Porcaro Shuffle Article by Drummer World: http://www.drummerworld.com/Videos/jeffporcaroshuffle.html

5. John Bonham Triplet Article by Drummer World: http://www.drummerworld.com/Drumclinic/johnbonhamdazedconfused.html

6. The Drummers of Steely Dan by Modern Drummer