Monday, February 02, 2015

Triplet bell patterns

Here's a nice video by a British percussionist, cataloging a whole lot of mostly-folkloric, triplet-based/compound meter, bell patterns from around the world:





It's always good to use caution trusting people's interpretation and scholarship with these things. I certainly don't agree that the jazz ride pattern falls under this list's category— it's arguable, anyway— and the way he plays it, with an accent on the 1 and 3, is just wrong. One viewer who seems knowledgeable left this comment:

several of those forms are not right at all. These are foundational rhythms for these forms of Folklore. If you dont get the foundation correct to start, you are heading off in the wrong direction big time. 

He's right: if you're planning on using this video as your jumping off point for studying twenty different folkloric styles from different parts of the planet... that might not be a great idea. That would be a crazy endeavor regardless of the video. But, with reasonable caveats, it's nice to have a loosely-correct survey of similar rhythms that have a history of human usage.


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