First things first - grab your transcription here.
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Ever notice what crazy percentage of the most popular songs across the last 3 decades are either “straight 8th”, or “hip hop/new jack” shuffles?
I’ll actually give you a moment to try to think of any that aren’t. It’s a short list. Fool in The Rain. (Guess that’s older than 30 years.) Rosanna. Everybody Wants to Rule The World. Latch.
(I’m talking about English Language music. There are doubtless other traditions where other subdivisions loom larger.)
Think about what that’s created in terms of our shared rhythmic vocabulary, especially for drummers who haven’t studied jazz: a lot of duple vocabulary.
8ths. 16ths. Some triplets. Some sextuplets.
But as a rule we don’t get much exposure to slow shuffles or “12/8” style grooves in English Language music. Which means that when we do encounter sextuplets, it’s in the conventional “divided by 2” configuration. (I get into this in the video, but picture playing 8th notes with the kick under sextuplets. You’re hitting the kick drum every 3.)
But there’s a whole other dimension of vocabulary we’re missing, and that’s without even getting into 5/7/9 subdivision like friends of the channel Joel Turcotte and Alex Cohen traffic in. And expanding your vocab horizons can make your playing more interesting even if you’re never playing any songs with these subdivisions. (Paradoxical, I know, but picture expanding your vocabulary “range of motion”.)
In this video, I’ll outline 3 “less common” subdivisions:
Conventional Sextuplets - ok, we see these more. But if you haven’t practiced them much, they’re an easy way to give your fills and grooves an extra dimension, even if the song is in straight duple meter.
Doubled Triplets - technically the same rate as sextuplets, it’s my contention that these are different for how we group them - in groups of 2 rather than 3. (Picture soloing at double the rate of Everybody Wants to Rule the World.) But you don’t have to play anything crazy or busy to get the benefits of practicing them. Watch friend-of-the-thumbnail Matt Garstka with Animals As Leaders or Josh DeLa Victoria, and the ideas he draws from thinking in doubled triplets make his conventional sextuplets more interesting.
Tripled Triplets - this will be more familiar to jazz folks, but this is what you’d play if you were soloing in triplets over a fast jazz waltz. And if you slow down a Purdie shuffle, it’s a jazz waltz with a backbeat.
Just because we only get one popular-song-a-decade that’s in these subdivisions doesn’t mean you can’t immediately reap the benefit of familiarity with them in your day-to-day playing.
If you dare - mwahahahaha ;)
Hope you enjoy this one!