Overlaying straight eighths with dotted-eighth-sixteenths

EuphGuy

Junior Member
I'm a beginner and I have several basic grooves down to the point where I can - and do - do them in my sleep. I'd like yo learn a basic song that I can jam and experiment with, and based on most of the sheet music I've looked at, it seems like learning the technique in the subject would open a lot of doors for me.

As such, I've been reviewing this:

http://www.drumscore.com/help/terms...16-dotted-8th-over-straight-8th-hand-exercise

Thinking about the two lines simultaneously seems impossible, but if I combine the two lines in my head (rhythmically), the exercises are a breeze to play. This makes me wonder if I'm "cheating" in a sense and not really building true limb independence.

So my question is, is it standard practice to think about each line 100% independently, or combine them to get the resulting rhythm?

I do have a teacher, but I don't see him until Saturday and I'm impatient :)

Thanks!
 
Just practice reeeeaaaaaallllllllyyyyy slow without a metronome. Think the whole thing in 16th and look at it this way. :
Right by itself, space, both hands, left by itself, space , etc etc. (Random example).
Do that for a while and speed it up gradually. You 'll be able to hear both rhythms after a while and "switch " from one to the other in your head.
Here is a good example of it

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=2M-3z0vG3zg

I don't think he could find a drummer that could do it at the time some he put it on a drum machine.
 
The better my (limited) independence gets the more I believe its not true independence, its actually learning combos and sticking patterns which you can call upon in different situations.
With that in mind, learn the combined rhythm/sticking pattern first, then once your body can play that, start to isolate the different patterns in your mind.
 
The better my (limited) independence gets the more I believe its not true independence, its actually learning combos and sticking patterns which you can call upon in different situations.
With that in mind, learn the combined rhythm/sticking pattern first, then once your body can play that, start to isolate the different patterns in your mind.

Thanks, that's sort of what I was wondering, too: "Is independence really the notion that each limb can carry on a rhythm of its own, or is it the mastery of sticking patterns that give rise to that illusion."

Because as I said, once I stopped trying to tell my right hand to play dotted-eighth-sixteenths and my left to play straight eighths, it was a breeze. "Hey, this is just an eighth (L/R) and two sixteenths (L-R) pattern!" Eureka?
 
The better my (limited) independence gets the more I believe its not true independence, its actually learning combos and sticking patterns which you can call upon in different situations.
With that in mind, learn the combined rhythm/sticking pattern first, then once your body can play that, start to isolate the different patterns in your mind.

The word I've heard is 'interdependence' rather than 'independence.
 
I work to be able to think both...each independently and each separately.

Its interesting to hear the difference when you move between the ways of perceiving your limbs when nothing else but your perception changes.
 
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