Tuesday, April 05, 2016

Chaffee linear phrases in 3/4 - 16th notes - 01

I've been trying to figure out why I never did that much with Gary Chaffee's linear system; I find I'm a lot more interested when I vary the rhythm, and when I'm not always starting with the right hand. Hence today's companion to this earlier page of one-measure triplet phrases— we'll do the same thing here, with 16th notes: basic one measure phrases, starting on each note of the first pattern in the phrase.

If you need a refresher on just what the hell we're talking about here, see this explanation of the concept, along with our other posts about this type of thing.




Play these with both hands on the snare drum (not fun), moving around the drums systematically (semi-fun), or freely (actually fun), or with one hand on the hihats and one hand on the snare drum. Do be careful to maintain the stickings as you move around the drums.

You can practice the exercises repeating endlessly; or play them as fills with a time feel, playing a groove in 3, with one or two measures of the patterns ending with a bass drum and cymbal accent on 1 as you go back into the groove. You can also play them as fills with a groove in 4/4— just start the fill on beat 2. Nothing stopping you from mentally rebeaming these and playing them in 6/8, too, should you be working in 6/8 right now...

This system is designed to be playable really fast, but don't just work for speed. It will take some work to sound good and maintain the groove when playing them at slower funk tempos, too.

Get the pdf

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