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                     Title: 1/8 Note Triplets on the Snare Drum  #1 

                        Recommended For: Beginners, Intermediate

                                 Time Signature: 4/4 

                                   By: Kevin Picone

                                Date: 2nd, Nov, 2000

                              Email: picone@giant.net.au

                          URL: www.thedrummachine.50megs.com

                Copyright: (c) Kevin Picone 2000, All Rights Reserved.

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Intro:


   Triplets can be overlooked, particularly by new students, as they are a powerful and
 challenging feel to master. While perhaps not as widely used in the Pop/Rock musical
 styles, there are in fact entire forms of music based on them, like jazz and blues and
 their various derivates also.  However there are of course lots of songs in Pop/Rock
 that are purely made of triplets also (eg "Hitching A Ride" / Green Day, "For Whom The
 Bell Tolls / Metallica). Generally, They seem to be use more in subtle ways rather
 than being played through the whole song...


  What are 8th note triplets ?. Assuming your familiar with playing Quarter notes in
 previous beats or fills. A Triplet is created when we 'cut' or 'slice' the time
 between each quarter note into 3 equally sized parts. 


   Quarter Note Example: 

   Count:          1     2     3     4
   Sticking:       R     L     R     L
   Snare:          o     o     o     o
   BassDrum:       o     o     o     o

  Notice the spacing between each quarter note is EVAN (the same
 distance apart)

   Triplets on the Snare Drum Example: 
  
   Count:          1 + a 2 + a 3 + a 4 + a
   Sticking:       R l r L r l R l r L r l
   Snare:          o o o o o o o o o o o o
   BassDrum:       o     o     o     o

  
   Counting 8th note triplets


  Although there are different conventions and personal preferences I personally
 prefer to count triplets as written above... i.e.  1 + a 2 + a 3 + a 4 + a


  For the following examples we are going to play Quarter notes if our bass drum
 and initially use both hands to play the various triplet snare drum patterns. 
 These should sound fairly familiar, a little like what you'd expect to hear in
 a marching band for example.

  Once you've nailed these with both hands, try them single handed... First
 RIGHT HAND ONLY and then LEFT HAND ONLY
   

  Well, that's about it... All the best.... !



Practice Aims:


Aim #1: Get comfortable playing each rhythm through once, with & without the counting, if
        you can do this, try playing it 2,3,4 times through or more without stopping. 


Aim #2: Try for a range of tempos, Start out slowly (around 70 / 80 bpm's) then medium
        (100bpm) and fast up to (120/130 bpm's or higher). The objective is make each
        note clean and evenly spaced. 


Aim #3: Try playing each line of exercises without stopping, keeping it evenly spaced
        the entire time. Next, Try 2 lines, then 3 lines and ultimately the entire
        lesson from top to bottom. To take this another step further, you can try
        playing the exercises randomly, this will help your reading and visualization
        skills greatly.



      Note: To really help you GET the triplet feel, try counting ALL the triplets
            even the ones your not playing... Count them evenly and Make sure that
            bass drum is hitting on every number count, so then you shouldn't have any
            problems 



 Exercise
 
      #1                                     #2                 

   Count:       1 + a 2 + a 3 + a 4 + a           1 + a 2 + a 3 + a 4 + a
Sticking:       R     L     R l r L               R l r L     R     L
   Snare:       o     o     o o o o               o o o o     o     o    
   Bdrum:       o     o     o     o               o     o     o     o


      #3                                     #4                 

   Count:       1 + a 2 + a 3 + a 4 + a           1 + a 2 + a 3 + a 4 + a
Sticking:       R l r L     R l r L               R     L r l R     L
   Snare:       o o o o     o o o o               o     o o o o     o    
   Bdrum:       o     o     o     o               o     o     o     o


      #5                                     #6                 

   Count:       1 + a 2 + a 3 + a 4 + a           1 + a 2 + a 3 + a 4 + a
Sticking:       R     L     R     L r l           R     L r l R     L r l
   Snare:       o     o     o     o o o           o     o o o o     o o o    
   Bdrum:       o     o     o     o               o     o     o     o



      #7                                     #8                 

   Count:       1 + a 2 + a 3 + a 4 + a           1 + a 2 + a 3 + a 4 + a
Sticking:       R l r L r l R     L               R     L     R l r L r l
   Snare:       o o o o o o o     o               o     o     o o o o o o
   Bdrum:       o     o     o     o               o     o     o     o



      #9                                    #10                 

   Count:       1 + a 2 + a 3 + a 4 + a           1 + a 2 + a 3 + a 4 + a
Sticking:       R l r L r l R l r L               R     L r l R l r L
   Snare:       o o o o o o o o o o               o     o o o o o o o    
   Bdrum:       o     o     o     o               o     o     o     o



     #11                                    #12                 

   Count:       1 + a 2 + a 3 + a 4 + a           1 + a 2 + a 3 + a 4 + a
Sticking:       R     L r l R l r L r l           R l r L     R l r L r l
   Snare:       o     o o o o o o o o o           o o o o     o o o o o o
   Bdrum:       o     o     o     o               o     o     o     o



     #13                                    #14                 

   Count:       1 + a 2 + a 3 + a 4 + a           1 + a 2 + a 3 + a 4 + a
Sticking:       R l r L r l R     L r l           R l r L     R     L r l
   Snare:       o o o o o o o     o o o           o o o o     o     o o o
   Bdrum:       o     o     o     o               o     o     o     o



     #15                                    #16                 

   Count:       1 + a 2 + a 3 + a 4 + a           1 + a 2 + a 3 + a 4 + a
Sticking:       R l r L r l R l r L r l           R l r L r l R   r L   l
   Snare:       o o o o o o o o o o o o           o o o o o o o   o o   o
   Bdrum:       o     o     o     o               o     o     o     o




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                (c) copyright 2000, By Kevin Picone, All Rights reserved.

                    For more Lessons, be sure to visit my web site, at

                          Http://www.thedrummachine.50megs.com

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