In this lesson you will be translating the single stroke 9 to the time signature of 6/8. When holding the last stroke of this for a crotchet, the rhythm fits quite nicely within the bar but has an odd feel to it. When the last stroke is only held for a quaver things become a little more interesting. In this case it ends up taking five bars for the rhythm of the rudiment to line up with the start of a bar again and you will notice in each bar the longer note moves left in the bar an eighth note.
Listed below are four exercises on this idea, a note on their construction is included in each. As with all rudiment exercises, use this to develop your technique. You should also ensure all dynamic levels are even.
Exercise 1
The single stroke 9 in 6/8 with the held note at the end of the pattern as a crotchet.
Exercise 2
The previous rhythm edited to have an eighth note for the longer stroke. Notice it now takes five bars for the rhythm to line up again.
Exercise 3
Similar to exercise 1 but starting with the longer stroke.
Exercise 4
Switching the longer stroke from the previous exercise to a quaver, again this takes five bars to line back up with itself.
TASK
- Using the 2 minute rule, get all exercises up to a tempo of 140bpm.
- Try adding feet as both eighth and quarter notes.
- Orchestrate each of the given patterns.
- Extend the pattern over several bars.