HELP! Playing 16ths and Triplets at the same time.

[delta]

Hello all, I was hoping someone could help me with this. I've been playing for about 8 months now and I've got it where I can play 8th notes on the high hat (1 And 2 And 3 And 4 And) and triplets on the bass drum (1 da da 2 da da 3 da da 4 da da) together. The way I was told to this to get it straight in my head was to count it like (if I play left hand lead on the hi-hat):

- Together (both hi-hat and bass drum start off together),
- R (bass drum)
- L ( hi -hat)
- R (bass drum)

And maintain that triplet feel with my right foot. It worked and I can do it cleanly. But now for the life of me I'm having the hardest time playing 16th notes on the hi-hat and keeping triplets going on the bass drum. I can't get it straight in my head. It's like my body is trained to always connect notes together with my feet and hands and now I'm unlearning that. Make sense? Any suggestions or exercises I could do? Thanks!

[Dzionix]

if you lead with left on hat. Try to leave that hand on hi hat. Think more about right hand or about bass if you play straight 16 on hat, and triplets with snare or basdrum :D Its more dificult with foots, its hard even for me (6yrs playing). try to think about triplets, 16 must go independence...

[k3ng]

That's polyrhythms you're talking about mate.

8th notes against triplets is 3 against 2 which is fairly simple.

When you pitch 3 against 4, that becomes a little tricky. The way I did it was to contentrate hard on my 8th notes and then trying to double them by adding notes in between to make em into 16ths.... Difficult I would say but don't let it hamper you. It's great independence exercise.

[Splinter]

I think that is cross rhythms, not polyrhythms.

[Dzionix]

its easy to play 8th notes and triplets at the same time. But harder to play 16th notes and same triplets at same time straight. :D

[Styx]

I think that is cross rhythms, not polyrhythms.


I believe those are polyrhythms, although I can't say I've heard about cross rhythms.

[Wavelength]

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/177/426679174_5fdcf6de83.jpg

The 3:4 and 4:3 polyrhythms on a single surface. Play the flams flat, i.e. in perfect unison. Play both exercises repeatedly until you can 'hear' how they sound in your head. Accentuate the leading hand's strokes, then try playing on different surfaces (for example, right hand on hi-hat, left on snare). Then switch the stickings. Learn to hear the rhythm in both perspectives. Once you have this down, it will be easier to translate this polyrhythm into sixteenth notes and eighth note triplets.

[mr_hayward_99]

an easy way to work this out is to write out the accents for each note then put the two together This enables you to see where each note falls in relation to the other. Rember this is in 4/4 so you are counting 1 e an a for each x but only playing the accented notes X

4 = XxxxXxxxXxxxXxxx
3 = XxxXxxXxxXxxXxxX