In this lesson you will be applying a swung 16th note right hand to various 6/8 grooves. These patterns will be demanding on your stamina so it may be worth working on This Hand Stamina Exercise to help improve your right hand.
Swung Time, when referring to 16th notes, is when all sets of two standard 16th notes are replaced with a triplet with the second note missing. This creates a 'jumpy' sort of rhythm that is very common in blues and jazz styles of music. In the bars of music below, on the left you have standard 16th notes and on the right how they would be played in swung time.
Usually when a whole piece is played in this timing swing time notation is used. This is a mark at the start of the piece that tells you all 16th notes are played in this triplet grouping. This prevents lots of little threes from being used all over the notation so makes it generally tidier and easier to read. Shown below on the left is the right hand part for these groups in standard notation and on the right in swing time notation.
Notice in the version on the right, the blocks of six semi quavers are split into smaller groups of two? This is to highlight the triplet feel. Spend some time familiarizing yourself with this rhythm, you can count '1 2 3' for each block but only play on the 1 and 3. When you are happy have a go at some of the groove examples below where this is used as the right hand part. All notes on the hi hats will be played with one hand. I have shown each groove with both standard and swung notation for the purposes of clarity.
Example 1
Example 2
Example 3
Example 4
Example 5
TASKS
- Using the 2 minute rule, get all grooves up to a tempo of at least 120bpm.
- Create your own variations on these patterns. Write as many down as possible.
- Use these patterns as part of a Structured Pattern. This idea works well as both a fill or groove.
