Most Drummers Never Learn Triplets Like This

Añadido: 2026-05-22

[00:00:00]Most drummers only use triplets in shuffles or swing grooves, but [music] this kind of Afro-Cuban phrasing opens up a completely different feel.

[00:00:09]And once you understand this bell [music] pattern, it completely changes the way you hear triplets on the drums.

[00:00:15]>> [music] >> And in this video, I'm going to show you how this groove works, how the bell pattern fits into [music] it, and why it creates such a unique feel.

[00:00:25]And at the end, I'll also show you something really interesting about this pattern. Because [music] depending on what you play against it, you start hearing the rhythm in a completely different way.

[00:00:37]A big reason why I love this kind of groove so much is because it creates this really satisfying three against two feeling. And I remember hearing grooves like this years ago and thinking like, what is that? Because it sounded so familiar, but completely different from a normal shuffle or swing groove. The right-hand pattern actually comes from a traditional six eight Afro-Cuban bell pattern.

[00:01:02]And once you adapt that to the drum set and add a backbeat, it creates a really modern and musical sound. And the interesting thing is, the subdivision itself is actually very simple.

[00:01:14]It's still just eighth-note triplets.

[00:01:17]The difficult part is learning how to organize those notes musically. So, let me show you how this groove works.

[00:01:26]So, like I said, the bell pattern is so important. It's like the bread and butter of this groove, and firstly, you need to learn it really, really well. It's impossible to add all these bells and whistles into it if you are not really confident about the bell pattern. So, let's learn how that works.

[00:01:46]The bell pattern consists of eighth-note triplets, and the way we can think of this is let's count to three. So, 1 2 3, 1 2 3, 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3 I'm losing my breath. 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3 So, where these accents land is they change all the time. So, we are in 6/8 time signature, which means that we have two bars.

[00:02:26]The bell pattern is two bars long. And the first bar is 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3 And the second bar is 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3 Let's put this together.

[00:02:47]1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3 If you can count out loud and clap the rhythm at the same time, really beneficial, not easy, but it makes you understand where those notes should actually land. Another way to think about it is if you are really good at hearing things like melodic melody and rhythm wise, then you can just try to memorize how it sounds.

[00:03:25]>> [music] [music] >> But, without any pause, it can be difficult.

[00:03:45]So, I will play the bass drum underneath the pattern using bass drum on quarter notes, meaning the beginning of each triplet has a bass drum.

[00:04:02]>> [music] [music] [music] >> So, that's the bell pattern. If it's completely new to you, it might take a while to get really comfortable with that. And you do need to be comfortable with that.

[00:04:25]Like I said, otherwise adding all the rest of it is going to be really difficult. Next, I will add bass drum and backbeat on the snare. And that already creates a bit of structure around this bell pattern.

[00:04:44]>> [music] [music] [music] >> And I need that pulse from somewhere to create that certain quarter note feeling. And I want to feel the pulse a little bit more. So, I want to keep the hi-hat on the quarter notes.

[00:05:11]So, I'll add that in.

[00:05:19]>> [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] >> Now that already sounds quite cool, but we can make this work even better by adding some dynamics into it. Now first, let's add ghost notes to the snare drum.

[00:06:19]So, all the places that are left without a note in the triplet, we'll add ghost notes in there.

[00:06:32]>> [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] >> All right, that's a little bit better.

[00:07:22]But what if what if I treat the ride pattern a bit more dynamically as well? Listen to this.

[00:07:35]>> [music] [music] >> So, what I did there, I didn't play all the notes on the bell of the ride, but I only played some of them, like this.

[00:08:04]>> [music] [music] [music] [music] >> So, when doing that, you create more layers, and it sounds more interesting.

[00:08:36]And I could use the same kind of approach if I play the the right pattern on hi-hat.

[00:08:46]>> [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] >> And what's really cool about this bell pattern is that it starts to sound really different depending on what you play against it.

[00:09:51]And I remember like back in the day when I was in music school, our teacher, Andre, gave us this exercise where we had to play the bell pattern and then we learned to play different amount of strokes with the other hand on top of that. So, I'll give you an example, but you can play two beats against it, three, four, or six, for instance. And it completely changes how that pattern sounds like.

[00:10:26]>> [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] >> So, you probably hear go like, "Why does the bell pattern sound so different depending on what's against it?" And I I can promise you I played the exactly the same thing with the right hand. I didn't change it.

[00:11:22]The only thing that changed was what was played with the left hand.

[00:11:27]And for me personally, like four against this pattern is really familiar because that's what I was playing when I played the groove. Like I had the hi-hat playing those four notes.

[00:11:41]But three, that sounds really different, right? Let me show you again. So three, if I have that bell pattern, >> [music] [music] >> so to me that totally flips my brain. I don't know what's going on there anymore. I can know I know how to play it, but it still is really like amazing to me how how the pattern changes with that against it. So it's I don't know I'm lost for words. It's amazing. And by the way, if you want to hear how this groove sounds in a more musical context, I made a short playing it to a backing track. I'll put the link down below if you're interested in hearing that. And if you work on this, take your time with it.

[00:12:32]Really learn the bell pattern first and then slowly build the coordination around it. I hope this lesson was inspiring and I hope to see you in the next video.