Double-Stroke Rolls - Explation and Utilzation of 32nd Notes

In this article, I will be explaining concept of a double-stroke roll and some exercises on how to start to learn this new technique so that you can utilize it in your playing.  The information that for this article was taken directly as from my lesson on the double-stroke rolls as my drum instructor, Jack Hall, presented them to me at his studio at the Willis Music Store on Hurstbourne Lane here in Louisville Ky.

What is a double-stroke roll?

A roll is music terms are notes that are played in secession, such as the single stroke roll where you alternate playing with both hands R,L,R,L (Right hand, Left hand, Right hand and Left Hand).  Taken that a step further, play the roll with two beats (hits) per hand, such as R,R,L,L (Right hand, Right hand, Left hand, Left hand) and you have the double-stroke roll. In drumming terms when two beats of played with the same hand, it is referred to as a dibble.

There is nothing really hard about this technique other than having to train muscle memory in order to play two beats evenly with each hand and have it sound the same as it would with just single strokes.  The Double-stroke roll is one of the fundamental building blocks for other rudiments that a drummer will use in his / her playing such as some of the more common rolls: five, seven and nine stroke rolls.

I mentioned rudiments above, let me take a minute and expand upon this : Rudiment are are the equivalent of chords that guitar players utilize. Rudiments are the building blocks for drummers and there have been 40 of the defined by the Official Percussive Arts Society.  There are many resources out there that will assist you in learning the Rudiments in which I listed several in the resource section of this article.

Two of my favorite are:

Vic Firth : Vic Firth Presents: 40 Essential Snare Drum Rudiments
Freedrumlessons.com :  The 40 Drum Rudiments

Benefits of Double Stroke Roll

One of the benefits of using the double-stroke roll is it can be used to increase speed by using the natural rebound of the stroke to get more then one beat per hit without having to lift the stick again.  This is sometimes called a rebound stroke and I won't go into a lot of detail here, but the gust of it that after making your first stroke with the stick, close the fingers and it will make another stroke.  This is how our idols do it to get such fast speeds.

What are 32nd Notes?

32nd Notes are another subdivision that we can make to increase the amount of notes that are played during a measure.  In a normal measure, if we divide a normal 4/4 time signature into 32nd notes, there will be 32nd notes to be played in that measure.  32nd notes are the subdivision of the 16th notes and is where they occur.

How do you count 32nd notes?

As my drum instructor informed me, unlike other subdivisions that have been introduced, 32nd notes don't have a count of there own for the individual notes, but are counted in groups of two. Therefore you would count the notes are sixteenth notes, but play two beats for each count.

What we end up with is really playing double-strokes for each of the beats of a sixteenth note.  This is why double-stroke roll and 32nd notes are introduced together.

Exercises

Exercise 1 - 8th Note Double-Stroke Roll

 Simple 8th note measure played on the snare drum with double-strokes starting with the right hand then moving to the left and then repeated.

8th Note Double-Stroke Roll

Exercise 2 - 16th Note Double-Stroke Roll

 This is an expanded version of exercise 1 above, but we double the number of strokes.  Again start with the right hand and play the 1, e with the right hand then &, a with the left hand.  Repeat the same for the other three sets of sixteenth notes.

16th Note Double-Stroke Roll

Exercise 3 - 32nd Note Double-Stroke Roll

 This again expands upon the previous exercise and again we double the number of strokes to be played. With this exercise, as I mentioned in the How to Count 32nd Notes above, you double the count of the 16th note.  In the image below, you start on the count of 1 by playing two strokes with the right hand, then play e with two stroke with the left hand, & with two stroke with the right hand and finally the a with two stroke with the left hand.  Repeat this for the other three sets of sixteenth notes in the measure.

32nd Note Double-Stroke Roll

Exercise 4 - Five Stroke Double-Stroke Roll

 Now that you have double-stroke roll under you belt, it's time to turn it up a bit and introduce an exercise that you can utilize to add a five stroke roll to you list of techniques.  The five strokes start on the count of & of 1 with two strokes with the right hand, a is played with two strokes with the left hand and the fifth note is played with the count of 2.  The pattern repeats itself with the & of 3 to the count of 4.

Five Stroke Double-Stroke Roll

Exercise 5 - Seven Stroke Double-Stroke Roll

 This exercise builds upon exercise 6, but we add another double to the count of two.  It starts like the other and we have a snare on the count of 1 and e then doubles on the &, a of 1 and 2 ending with the seventh beat on the e of 2.

Seven Stroke Double-Stroke Roll

Exercise 6 - Nine Stroke Double-Stroke Roll

 This is a bit different than the first two, starting with doubles on the count of 1, e, & and a and the ninth note ending on the count of 2; repeat for the count of 3

Nine Stroke Double-Stroke Roll

 There you have it, an introduction to the rudiment double-stroke roll and 32nd notes and some applied examples to get you in some practice and take it to the drum kit.  You can click here to download a copy of the exercises in a PDF file so that you can take it to the kit and start adding this to you technique.

PDF File: Double-Stroke Rolls and 32nd Notes

Resources

Online Rudiments Resources:

Vic Firth : Vic Firth Presents: 40 Essential Snare Drum Rudiments
Freedrumlessons.com :  The 40 Drum Rudiments
Freedumlesson.com : Learn To Count Thirty Second Notes

Double-Stroke Roll Books:

Stick Control for the Snare Drum by George Lawrence Stone : Amazon

George Lawrence Stone's Stick Control is the original classic, often called the bible of drumming. In 1993, Modern Drummer magazine named the book one of the top 25 books of all-time. In the words of the author, it is the ideal book for improving ""control, speed, flexibility, touch, rhythm, lightness, delicacy, power, endurance, preciseness of execution and muscular coordination,"" with extra attention given to the development of the weak hand. This indispensable book for drummers of all types includes hundreds of basic to advanced-level rhythms, moving through categories of single-beat combinations, triplets, short roll combinations, flam beats, flam triplets and dotted notes, and short roll progressions.

Basic Drumming by Joel Rothman : Amazon

Used worldwide, this one book contains all the fundamentals needed for playing drums. It is exceptional value for the money!

Mini-Monsters of Rock by Joel Rothman : Amazon

This study has almost everything you always wanted to know about rock drumming. It contains disco beats, coordination exercises, rock breaks, and much more.

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Porcaro and Texas Shuffles Explained

Extending my series on Shuffles, I'm going to provide the patterns to two of the more popular Shuffle patterns: Rosanna (Porcaro) and Texas.  If you have not worked with shuffles yet, please take a look at the first two parts of this series: Do You Know How to Shuffle and Groove The Half Time Shuffle

The Rosanna or Porcara Shuffle 

 

This shuffle was made popular by Jeff Porcara, the drummer for the rock group Toto with the song Rosanna; as the names apply.

If you have not done so already, you may want to take a few minutes to look at this article to become acquainted with shuffles and in particular the way in which they are counted: Do You Know How To Shuffle. You may also take a look at this article on Ghost Notes as they are also included in this two patterns: Drum Lesson 7 - Alternated Patterns Part 3.

This pattern can be a little complicated; at least it has been for me. As with all shuffles, this is triplet based, with the count of 1 being a hi-hat and kick drum combination, a snare beat on 2 and another hi-hat on the count of 3.  The second triplet starts with on the count of 4 with a hi-hat, the count of 5 is a ghost note snare beat (see this article mentioned above) followed by the count of six with a hi-hat and kick drum.  The count of 1 on the third triplet starts out with a snare beat, followed by ghost note snare on the count of 2, hi-hat on the count of 3, hi-hat / kick on the count of 4, snare beat on the count of 5 and ends with a hi-hat on the count of 6.

Rosanna Shuffle Part 1

The next measure in this pattern starts out with the count of 1 of the triplet with a hi-hat, followed by a ghost note snare beat on the count of 2, then a hi-hat and kick drum on the count of 3.  The next triplet starts out just like the first triplet accept that the snare beat on the count of 5 is a normal one.  The third triplet is the same as the one is the first part and the last triplet is the same as the second triplet; hi-hat, snare and hi-hat / kick combination.  

Rosanna Shuffle Part 2

The Texas Shuffle

The Texas Shuffle, while not as specific as the Rosanna, has many incantations and varies through-out its usage.  Below I have listed some songs that utilize this shuffle pattern so that you can give a listen to them and get a feelings for this groove.

"La Grange" by ZZ Top

  "Collins Shuffle" by Stevie Ray Vaughan

"Tequila Makes Her Clothes Fall Off" by Joe Nichols

"Should've Said No" by Taylor Shift

Lets dive into the specifics of this pattern with the first example.  This example starts out with a hi-hat / kick drum on the count of 1, a rest of count of 2 followed by a ghosted snare beat the count of 3.  The other three triplets follow this pattern.

Texas Shuffle Example 1

The second example starts out with a hi-hat / kick combination on the count of 1, rest on the count of 2, ghosted snare beat and hi-hat on the count of 3 and this pattern repeats for the remainder of the measure.

Texas Shuffle Example 2

There are many different varies and there is no right or wrong way for the shuffle to be played as the two examples above show.

So, that's it.  Now that the Rosanna and Texas Shuffle has been explained, it's time to take it to the kit and apply these three new patterns which will your arsenal of drumming techniques. I have created a downloaded PDF file that you can print and take to your kit; get it here: Porcaro Texas Shuffle Explained.

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Groove the Half Time Shuffle

Jeff Porcaro

Let's talk about how to make a song groove (feel) in half the time by building upon my previous article, in which I talked in depth about the Shuffle (Click here view that article: Do You Know How To Shuffle). That article discussed what a shuffle is, gave some example songs that utilize the shuffle pattern and provided in-depth examples to learn that shuffle. In this article, I’m going to introduce the Half-Time Shuffle, provide you with some example songs to listen to in order to feel the groove and provide some examples so that you can take it to the kit and start learning this new technique to add to you skill set. The detail of this article if taken from the material that my drum instructor provided to me on May 29^th, 2013 at his studio inside Willis Music Store on Hurstbourne Lane here in Louisville Ky.

What is Half Time?

Half Time, in music, is a way in which you play a piece of music that gives it a different rhythm and feel. In the case of drums, it revolves around the snare drum beat. If you think that you never heard a song that is in Half Time, take a listen to these below all on YouTube.

Rosanna - Toto

Babylon Sisters - Steely Dan

Fool in the Rain - Led Zeppelin

So lets now move to how this applies to drums. As I stated in a previous article (Intro to the Drum Kit –Eighth Note Exercise), one of the basic beats is an with eighth notes on the hi-hat, kick drum played on the counts of 1 and 3 and the snare drum on the counts of 2 and 4. 

Basic Rock Groove

In order to make the same beat groove in Half Time, the snare drum is going to be removed from the second beat and only played on the count of 4 and replaced with the kick drum on the count of 2.

Half Time Rock Groove

The Shuffle as discussed in my previous article, has twelve beats per measure and will have the hi-hat played on all counts (1 to 6, 1 to 6, or 1 to 12), the kick drum played on both counts of 1 (1 and 7) and the snare drum on both counts of 4 (4 and 10) as the example below demonstrates.  See Do You Know How To Shuffle for the time signature and notation for Shuffles.

Shuffle - Example

The Half Time Shuffle, the snare drum is removed from the count of 4 and replaced with a kick drum and it's this substitution of snare that gives the beat the half time feel.

Half Time Shuffle - Example

Lesson Objectives

 

To build upon the Shuffle article and introduce Half Time feel in a 12/8 time signature a long with providing exercises that assist in developing the technique.

Exercises included in PDF document is now available for downloading: Shuffle Half Time

Exercises

Now lets move on to learning to apply the Half Time Shuffle technique.  

The first exercise is the basic triplet with the snare drum only on the second count of 1 (or 7). 

Half Time Shuffle - Exercise 1

The second exercise adds a kick drum to both beats of 3 (3 and 9).

Half Time Shuffle - Exercise 2

The third exercise builds upon the first two and adds another kick drum to both counts of 6.

Half Time Shuffle - Exercise 3

The next exercise the kick that was on both counts of six are now moved to both counts of five.

Half Time Shuffle - Exercise 4

The fifth exercise does some more moving.  The kick is moved to both counts of two.

Half Time Shuffle - Exercise 5

The sixth exercise, we moved to a true shuffle with the second and fifth hi-hats removed so that it swings.  The kick drum in on the counts of 1 and 3 and last 3 counts.  The snare is on the second 1 count.

Half Time Shuffle - Exercise 6

The final exercise is the same as the sixth, but another kick drum is added on both counts of 3.

Half Time Shuffle - Exercise 7

That is it! By moving that one note on the count of four and placing it on the second count of 1 (or 7), it changes the groove (feel) of the altogether. By moving this beat, it provides a great illusion that can be used in music to provide a different type of groove and combinations of beats that keeps the listener on edge and interested.

Your Assignment

 

It's your turn now!  Download the accompanying exercises here: Shuffle Half Time PDF, take it to the kit and start working on this new technique, the Half Time 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.

You can also expand upon the exercises included here and the accompanying PDF by making the first five exercises into Shuffles by removing the second and forth hi-hat beats.
 
This wraps up another lesson, which built upon my previous article Do You Know How To Shuffle and presented yet another technique to boost your skills behind the drum kit.  Keep it real and about the music! Until next time--Thanks for reading!

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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

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Eighth Note Triplets

Eighth Note Triplet

Triplets are a funny little grouping of notes. They find themselves throughout all musical genders from rock, to the blues, and jazz. This material presented here is based on the notes that were presented to me by my drum instructor Jack Hall on May 22^nd, 2013 at his studio at the Willis MusicStore on Hurstbourne Lane here in Louisville KY.

To quote the book “The Total RockDrummer” by Mike Michalkow published by Alfred, “Lots of songs by Elvis Presley, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Ray Charles and other use triplets beats. One very popular song using this rhythm is “Hold the Line” by Toto, featuring Jeff Porcaro on drums.”

Another rock song that utilizes triplets in the main groove of the song after the into, according to the book is “Hot For Teacher” by Van Halen featuring Alex Van Halen on drums.

Steward Copeland of the Police, using triplets on the “Walking on the Moon” for the main groove of the song.

If you have not heard these songs or it's been a while, I would recommend going back and taking a listen to assist understanding this lesson after you have finished reading. I have provided the links to the song videos below that are on YouTube.

Toto - Hold The Line

Van Halen - Hot For Teacher

The Police - Walking on the Moon

The notation for triplets are a grouping of three notes together with a beam above it with a "3" (refer to above image Eight Note Triplet).  For common time signature (4/4) there will be 24 notes to a measure (refer to the below image Eighth Note Triplets - Exercise 1).  If you do not know music notation or need a refresher take at my Music Theory and Applying The Theory articles that I have previously developed.

Eighth note triplets are counted, 1-trip-let, 2-trip-let, 3-trip-let, 4-trip-let and 1-trip-let-&-trip-let, 2-trip-let-&-trip-let, 3-trip-let-&-trip-let, 4-trip-let-&-trip-let.

Now that you know what triplets are, let me present to you some exercises that will help to get you playing them on the drum kit.

Lesson Objectives

To introduce triplets in a 4/4 time signature and provide exercises that assist in developing the technique to play this grouping of notes to the drum kit.

PDF document is now available for downloading: Eighth Note Triplets

Exercises

The first exercise introduces the eighth note triplets by playing triplets on all the eighth notes.  It starts out with 1-trip-let-&-trip-let with the first note played on the hi-hat, then two beats of the snare drum which completes the first eighth note triplet. It is then followed another triplet that starts on the & of 1 and counted &-trip-let with again the hi-hat on the & and two snare drum beats on trip-let.  This pattern repeats for the remainder of the measure; remember to count them 1-trip-let-&-trip-let, 2-trip-let-&-trip-let, 3-trip-let-&-trip-let, 4-trip-let-&-trip-let.

IMPORTANT: All Notes are equality spaced.

Eighth Note Triples - Exercise 1

The second exercise (refer to Eighth Note Triplets - Exercise 2) is more in line with what you will find in a song.  It starts out with two eighth notes (1, &) with hi-hat and kick drum played together, the count of 2 is hi-hat and snare played together, the &-trip-let is hi-hat, followed by a snare and another snare, 3 and & of 3 is the same as beat 1 and & of 1 and the measure ends with the count of 4 with a hi-hat and snare played together follow by a hi-hat on the & of 4

Eighth Note Triples - Exercise 2

The third exercise (refer to Eighth Note Triplets - Exercise 3) uses the second exercise as the basis but adds another triplet on the count of 3 with a hi-hat and kick drum, trip has a snare beat, let has another snare beat followed by the & with the hi-hat and kick drum combo.

Eighth Note Triples - Exercise 3

The forth exercise (refer to Eighth Note Triplets - Exercise 4) uses the third exercise as the basis but adds another triplet on the count of 1 with a hi-hat and kick drum, trip has a snare beat, let has another snare beat followed by the & with the hi-hat and kick drum combo.

Eighth Note Triples - Exercise 4

The fifth exercise (refer to Eighth Note Triplets - Exercise 5) changes things up.  This measure starts out with a triplet on the count of 1 with hi-hat, then snare, then another snare beat, followed by a triplet on the & of 1 with again a hi-hat, snare beat and another snare beat.  The second beat is a hi-hat and snare beat and the & of 2 is a hi-hat.  The count of 3 and 4 are subdivided (repeated from count of 1 and 2) to end the measure.

Eighth Note Triples - Exercise 5

The six exercise (refer to Eighth Note Triplets - Exercise 6)again changes things up by replacing the triplet kick drum and place it with the snare drum with starting out with hi-hat and kick on 1, snare on trip and let, followed by the same triplet on the & of 1 with hi-hat, snare, snare combination. Again the reminder of the measure is subdivided for the count of 3 and 4 (repeated from count of 1 and 2).

Eighth Note Triples - Exercise 6

The final exercise (refer to Eighth Note Triplets - Exercise 7) starts out with a triplet on the count of one with hi-hat, kick drum and kick drum, the same is applied to the & of 1, the count of two repeats the count of one the final two beats are the count of 3 with a hi-hat and snare combo and the count of 4 repeats the count of 3.

Eighth Note Triples - Exercise 7

This wraps up this lesson, which focused on introducing eighth note triplets, triplet notation and some exercises to get you going on the kit.  Now take these to you kit and start applying what you just learned (PDF version of the exercises here). Remember to start these out slowly and gradually increase your speed when and only when you can play them without errors and comfortably.  Use a metronome when you are practice so that you can hear the spacing between the notes and make sure that you play them evenly.  Prefect Practice Makes Prefect!  Bad Practice, just makes bad. Also, try and come up with some beats of your own take those to you the kit.  Keep it about the music and if you have any questions, visit my contact page and use one of the methods to reach me.  Have a great day and thanks for reading!

Resources

The Total Rock Drummer by Mike Michalkow

The Total Rock Drummer is a unique and exciting journey through the diverse world of rock drumming. Start with basic lessons in keeping a beat, and end up playing sophisticated fills and solos. This book features many of the styles that make rock drumming so challenging, yet rewarding, and is meant for all drummers from beginners to advanced players. Learn everything from rockabilly and reggae to funk and progressive rock, plus actual drumbeats from famous rock tunes by Led Zeppelin, Van Halen, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Metallica, The Police, Tool, Green Day, and more! This is the one place to get everything you need to make you a great rock drummer. A CD demonstrating the examples in the book is included.

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