Core Skills

Timing: You should aim to explore the accuracy of your strokes, ensuring that the rhythms are clear and performed cleanly.

Motion: Be aware of your movements! Moving these rhythms around the drum set might involve motions that you’re not used to, so take the time to understand this. Smooth motions will have a positive impact on your timing!

Fluidity and creativity: By exploring different ways of applying these triplets, you will open up new possibilities to incorporate into your fills and grooves. Mix your creative output with these triplets with eighth or sixteenth note phrases to loosen your fluidity, and spice things up.

Each example in these articles are just that: examples. Exercise your creative muscle further by coming up with your own versions. The same applies with the orchestration of each example; orchestrate as you like!

How To Practice These

• Practice each example slowly, and build speed when you’ve achieved fluid quality

• Start first on the snare drum until you’re comfortable, then orchestrate as you please

• Turn each idea into a 4-bar phrase.

• Also try playing 4 bars of a groove, and 4 bars of the ideas

• Play simple time, and try using shuffle grooves

• Create your own rhythmic variations of each example

• Focus, and explore this in detail