Sixteenth Note Triplets
Earlier we created 16th notes by cutting each 8th note in half. If we take 8th notes and divide each one into three parts then we get 16th note triplets. With triplets we end up with three notes in the same space where there would have been two. There are ways of counting these notes, but they often come too quickly for that to be helpful, so here we will just count 8th notes.
This sticking means that every 8th note will be played with the right hand and the other two notes of the triplet with the left. Accent the right hand by raising it higher than the left before you strike the drum.
Sixteenth Note Shuffles
Again, exercise 77 is a bar full of 16th note triplets, but the first and second note of each triplet has been tied together - meaning that we don’t play the second note of every group of three. This is the basic shuffle rhythm we will start with. We are going to count this rhythm the same way we counted straight 16th notes.
Note that in many styles of music, particularly Jazz and Blues, simpler 8th note triplets are used extensively. I have omitted them here because they are fairly uncommon in Hip-Hop and contemporary R&B, but you will probably use 16th note triplets in some way every time you play.
This is the same pattern we played in exercise 27, but now we’ve applied our 16th note shuffle feel to it. The result is that the snares on 2a and 3e have been pushed back slightly - the 8th notes are exactly as they were.
It is of vital importance to understand that the shuffle feels we encounter in Hip-Hop and R&B are not always exactly based on triplets like this. In fact, the majority of the time they won’t be exactly like triplets.
We can take any 16th note pattern and apply just a slight lilt to it, pushing the 16th note off-beats (all the "e"s and "a"s) back very subtly. We are also free to push those notes back further than the triplet would indicate too.
Quite often there will be variations on these within every bar. It very much comes down to the individual drummer and where he or she likes to feel these grooves.
Go back to exercise 27 and practice all these grooves again, shuffling all the 16th notes. It is also a good idea to practice playing with your right hand on the ride cymbal instead of the hi-hat sometimes.
Because there are so many ways of playing the same pattern and because it is much easier to read, the patterns will not be written out again with 16th note triplets.
This is the convention with drum charts (for big-bands and so on); above the music the composer will indicate if the chart is to be interpreted as a shuffle by writing "light swing feel" or "heavy funk shuffle", often accompanied by this symbol: The drum parts are then written out as if they were 6 = z straight.
Know Your Drums…
Splash Pedal
Splash cymbals are small cymbals that produce a sound that decays very quickly. Splash cymbals are occasionally mounted inverted, on top of a larger cymbal (i.e., a crash) which can give a different tone and makes for ease of playing. Splash cymbals are normally used to play accents and fills, sometimes with a "choke" technique to play fast rhythmic figures.
