The Shuffle Rhythm
By playing only the first and third notes of the triplet a shuffle rhythm is created. This is known as swinging the notes. The shuffle rhythm is commonly used in many styles of music including Blues, Rock, Country and Jazz. The following example contains one bar of triplets and one bar of the shuffle rhythm. Notice the counting underneath the notes.
There are various ways of notating shuffle rhythms and swinging eighth notes. The two outside notes of the triplet group can be grouped together either as a quarter note and an eighth note with a triplet sign above them or as two eighth notes with a rest in between. On the drums these two forms of notation sound exactly the same as demonstrated in the following example.
Another common way of indicating that eighth notes are to be swung is to write 6 = z at the start of the music and write the whole pattern in eighth notes. Here is a shuffle groove which is commonly used in Blues. It is often called a Chicago shuffle or double shuffle. Notice that the snare drum plays a constant shuffle rhythm throughout. The important thing here is that the backbeat is accented. When playing this kind of shuffle, it is common to play all snare notes as ghost notes except for the backbeat.
