In the previous lesson. I shared some exercises to master quintuplets.
Quintuplets Lesson I
Here’s the first part of a series of lessons on sixteenth-note quintuplets, a group of five notes in the space of a quarter note. We start with a…
In this second lesson, I show you a system to play and interpret the exercises of Ted Reed’s Syncopation (pages 38 to 45) using quintuplets with an alternate sticking (RLRLR | LRLRL).
What we’ll do is to read the pages of Reed’s Syncopation playing the accents on the sixteenth-note quintuplets, similarly when you play in 16th notes or in eight-note triplets. Being these pages based on eight notes, the possible combinations will be two: on the downbeat (first note of the quintuplet) or on the upbeat (fourth note). A good exercise is to play all the combinations of accents: downbeat, upbeat, and both, as shown below.
Once that you are comfortable (don’t forget the bass drum or the hi-hat on the quarter notes), go to page 38, before you start, be sure to know how to read Ted Reed’s Syncopation in 16th notes and in 8th-note triplets.
Then start with the first four bars of the page and after go to the other measures. Here’s how the exercise must be played.
In modern drumming 16th-note quintuplets are often incorporated in the context of accompaniment and also in a solo situation, becoming part of the vocabulary of drummers like Matt Halpern, George Kollias, Anika Nilles, Jeff Hamilton, Greg Hutchinson, and many others, so take your time, quintuplets need a constant work to be mastered, remember to start slowly and to apply all the concepts of this and the previous lesson on the drumset (toms, cymbals) and in a musical context.
See you for part three, cheers!
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