photo by Deanna Robinson

Swinging with Broken Doubles

I know...I know. How could broken doubles actually swing? Play them as triplets. As usual, I was fooling around on the drums brainstorming for my next article and stumbled across these pretty cool ideas, based upon triplets and quarter note triplets, to play over a swingin' jazz rhythm. So I reverse engineered what I found and came up with some logical steps to get you there. These exercises will help expand your dexterity and increase your ability to articulate within a triplet subdivision. For this issue of Percussion Sessions® I have included an extensive series of downloadable exercise including notation and audio. While recording the examples, I kept the hi-hat going on "2" and "4." I would recommend adding the hi-hat in as soon as you get comfortable with the exercises as written. Start slow for precision and muscle memory. These are by no means just for jazz playing. That's just the path I took to find them. Enjoy!

CHECK OUT THE AUDIO!!!
broken_dbls.mp3

First, let's start off with just playing doubles on the snare drum within a triplet subdivision.

Now let's play the same kind of idea, but move back one triplet. Please note that all eighths are "swing" eighths. The pick-up note is actually the last triplet of beat "4."

Now we'll add the bass drum to the first note of each double. So the bass drum is now playing the quarter note triplet.

Let's do the same thing now, but move it back one triplet.

Now let's focus on just the hands again. This time, let's move the right hand to the high tom.

Then move it back one triplet.

Add the bass drum to the first note of each double.

Move it back one triplet.

Back to just the hands. Now we're going to move the right hand between the high tom and low tom.

Move it back one triplet.

Now add the bass drum back in.

Move it back one triplet.

Now we get in to the "broken" part of these exercises. Let's split the doubles up on the right hand between a cymbal and the high tom. And split the left hand doubles between a cymbal and the snare.

Move it back one triplet.

Now let's move the right hand split doubles between the high tom and the low tom.

Now we're getting the idea! Move it back one triplet.

Okay, now we're ready to make some music with what we just learned. Practice going from playing jazz time into the pattern and back to jazz time. Both variations work great when used at the right moment. Remember, timing is everything. Try to focus on the quarter note triplets that the bass drum is playing because that rhythm is really what we are trying to embellished here.

I hope that this article has been informative and fun. Feel free to email comments and questions to me at michaeldrums@gmail.com

Happy playing and best wishes,
Michael