Hi all,
I have been studying the section on Steve Smith's DVD entitled Developing a Strong Swing pulse. He explains that by using the 3 over 2 polyrhythm in the following exercises helped him develop his strong swing pulse.
He first starts off by playing this polyrhythm in his hands, with the 3 syncopated quarter note triplets on the snare and the 2 on the ride cymbal, while the bass drum plays quarter notes with the hi hat on 2 and 4. Then he plays it with the classic jazz ride pattern, as this polyrhythm falls naturally into it. Then you accent the 2 and 4 while playing the syncopated quarter note triplet against the swing and shuffle ride pattern.
My question is regarding the next section which he covers which is to do with Straight Eighths. He says that although they may sound unrelated, the Straight Eighth rhythm came directly out of the shuffle. I think that when he's playing the shuffle pattern in his snare part, he starts to accent the upbeats, so that you can hear the straight eights?? How do I approach this??
He then plays the polyrhythm with his feet and goes through the same exercises, of accenting the 2 and 4, with the swing and shuffle, which I can do, but it's when he switches to straight eights again then I don't understand how he does this.