BOPWORKS STICKS NEWS: For those of you who asked about getting some free Bopworks sticks, I’ll be sending them out this week. I’ll email everyone who will be receiving them. While I finish doing my taxes, […]
Category: hemiola
Hemiola funk series – basic logic
I want to walk through the logic of this hemiola funk series of posts— at least the logic of one part of it, which may be difficult to see on playing through the materials. I […]
Groove o’ the day: Hot Rod
Update: There is some dispute as to whether the drummer here is actually Idris Muhammad, which would not surprise me at all, because this is the kind of stuff he plays. This is from a […]
Hemiola funk series – SB-BS
I like this series. It’s a little half-baked, and I’ll probably have to rewrite it eventually, but I feel we’re closing in on something. A theory of rhythm and playing the drumset not based on […]
Hemiola funk series – BS-SB
Further exploring hemiola rhythms in various meters and drum set orchestrations… there will be several more posts like this coming soon. It’s a simple idea that nevertheless needs to be written out, and it takes […]
Two hemiola coordination patterns
This is partly about rhythmic education, partly about drilling a couple of basic drumset coordination ideas, and partly about education on the polyrhythmic foundation of common funk rhythms. It is based on this page of hemiola […]
Hemiola basics – UPDATED
On the sage advice of a fifth grade student, I’ve revised this old page introducing the 3:2 polyrhythm, or hemiola. I’ve added a few variations and inversions, added stickings and syllables for counting… and deleted […]
Afro 6/8 exercise: getting the 3/4 pull
More on this. All I can say is, my readers should be absolutely killing it with their Afro 6/8 in the next 6-12 months. This is a basic counting and coordination exercise I’ve been using with […]
Slow tempos: the compound pulse
Following up on the subdiving post: you may have noticed that I suggested subdividing 8th notes at slow tempos— not triplets, as you might expect with music like jazz, that is often thought to be […]
Hemiola applications: funk
Here are some very straightforward funk applications derived from the 3:2 polyrhythm in 4/4 in the hemiola basics post. By isolating each measure, revoicing the parts slightly, and adding obvious things like a downbeat on […]
Hemiola basics
UPDATE: I have since written an updated version of this page. The hemiola— also called the 3:2 polyrhythm– is a basic polyrhythm using layered even two and three note rhythms. What I’ve done here is […]