Eighth Note Build Ups In 6/8

In this lesson you are going to play a fill that makes use of a crescendo that has also been covered in 3/4 and 4/4. The fill will be a simple repetitive pattern that starts quiet and gradually gets louder. The 3/4 and 4/4 lessons are linked at the bottom of this page and it will be assumed that you have covered that already.

For your first 6/8 build up fill you are going to play a bar of eighth notes with some dynamics. The bar will start at 'p' (soft) and end up at 'f' (loud). When playing softly put less power into your strokes and don't lift your sticks up very high. As you progress through the bar gradually start lifting the sticks higher and putting a bit more power into your strokes until you reach the end. This all happens over six beats and looks like this:

A fill with dynamics.

Remember the '<' sign underneath the stave is a crescendo and that tells you to gradually get louder. Once you are comfortable with the above pattern you can then create a few variations by changing the orchestration and adding in feet. When feet are shown in these kind of patterns you can often choose wether to apply to cresendo to the feet or not.

Listed below are 3 variations on this fill. I have included a bar of groove before each, it is important that there are no breaks in timing when switching from groove to fill or back again.


Variation 1

A fill with dynamics.


Variation 2

A fill with dynamics.


Variation 3

A fill with dynamics.


Variation 4

A fill with dynamics.


TASK

  • Using the 2 minute rule, get all fills up to a tempo of at least 135bpm.
  • Use the concept in a structure part.
  • Create your own fill pattern using this concept.

Lessons

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