6-count Meters Drum Style Lessons
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6-Count Meters Drum Style Lessons – YouTube Playlist
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Don’t confuse 6-count Meters with 3-count Meters:
Meters with 6-beats (counts) in a bar can be 6 1/2-notes as in 6/2 Meter (I’ve rarely seen), 6 1/4-notes as in 6/4 Meter, or 6 1/8-notes in 6/8 Meter (the most common), or even 6 1/6-notes in 6/16 Meter. Even though 6/8 Time is common in Gospel, Blues, Soul, and even Old Rock, it’s often written in 4/4 Meter as a Triplet Style. It really all comes from African music that migrated into Western Music Genres, and thus naturally is the basis of Afro-Cuban music and any other Afro fusion subgenres.
Video to feel the difference between 3/4 and 6/8 Meter from a piano perspective, which drummers should be watching the pianist’s hands to see sooner they will hear.
Video of Piano Man by Billy Joel: an excellent example of a Rock 3/4 Waltz (123, 123) going into Rock 6/8 (123456). In quieter spots like the Verse or Interlude they do 3/4 where the loud instruments/bass drum are on 1 and snare on 2 3 or just the “lazy” 3, but when they get into 6/8 in the Chorus, you hear the loud instruments/bass drum on 1 and the snare hard on 4.
6-count Meters Drum Style:
Meters with 6-beats (counts) in a bar can be 6 1/2-notes as in 6/2 Meter (I’ve rarely seen), 6 1/4-notes as in 6/4 Meter, or 6 1/8-notes in 6/8 Meter (the most common), or even 6 1/6-notes in 6/16 Meter. Even though 6/8 Time is common in Gospel, Blues, Soul, and even Old Rock, it’s often written in 4/4 Meter as a Triplet Style. It really all comes from African music that migrated into Western Music Genres, and thus naturally is the basis of Afro-Cuban music and any other Afro fusion subgenres.
Video of 70 bpm of standard Drum Loop: RH 1 2 3 4 5 6, LH on 4, BD on 1. Same thing but 120 bpm.
Video of Beauty and the Beast’s Gaston – starts at 1:02 seconds: This sounds close to 3/4 Time, but notice that count 1 is louder (“primary stress”) than count 4 (“secondary stress”), so that’s how you can tell it’s not count 1 loud followed by another 1 loud!
Video of Queen’s We are the Champions that is slow 6/8 Meter – start at 38 seconds in:
1 2 3 4 5 6 Sloshy Hi-Hat with emphasis on 1 & 4
_________4 LH high and hard!
1 6 BD
Video of Metallica’s Nothing Else Matters that is slow 6/8 Meter:
1 2 3 4 5 6 1 2 3 4 5 6 Sloshy Hi-Hat with emphasis on 1 & 4
_________4 4 LH high and hard!
1 1 6 BD
Video of Coldplay’s Shiver in fast 6/8 Meter:
1 2 3 4 5 6 Time
_____+ 4 Add the + for ‘excitable’ parts. 4 is Rim Clicked in the verse
1 + 6 The 6 pickup is added occasionally for quieter parts to add some forward drive. The + is added to setup the 4 during “excitable’ parts!
Video of Kelly Clarkson’s Breakaway in fast 6/8 Meter:
1 2 3 4 5 6 Time
_________4 + LH backbeat plus ghosted (soft) + for echo-effect and phrasing to the 1
1 + + First + sets up 4 but 2nd + creates syncopation and a phrase leading to the 1
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