Triplet feels?

[spaceace2022]

I'm kinda new at both playing bass and posting to forums, but I was wondering if anyone could help me with teniques to deal with a triplet feel like the ones that arise in songs such as "La Grange" by ZZ Top, "Love Gun" by Kiss and "Schools Out" by Alice Cooper to name a few. Like I Said I'm Kinda New so The dumber you make it sound the better at least for me.

[BassChuck]

A triplet is just dividing the basic pulse into 3 equal units. You already know what that sounds like. As far as counting goes, there are several systems that can work for you and I'm sure that someone will post the 'correct' way to count them. But, after over 30 of teaching music to young kids, I've found that sub-divisions of beat are best taught by finding a word that has the same number of syllabols.

For instance. Triplets work with Tri-pa-let, tri-pa-let. etc etc. Sixteeths (dividing the beat into 4 units) Al-ka-sel-zer. I think you get the idea. It's not the 'academic' way to do things, but no one knows whats going on in your head anyway. Kids can take the standard 1-e-an-a stuff and say it in any rhythm.

For divisions of 5 notes per pulse I prefer 'In-tra-you-ter-ine', but with younger kids 'pen-sil-shar-pen-er' is probably better.

[JimK]

Originally Posted by BassChuck

For instance. Triplets work with Tri-pa-let, tri-pa-let. etc etc.

The critics here always go nutz-
"Hig-a-dee Bog-a-dee" seems to flow better (at least for me) when counting triplets.

Something else in the original post-
"School's Out" has a pretty defined Triplet part(during the chorus)...you can easliy hear all 3 notes being banged out by the bass & drums.
"La Grange", IIRC, has a Triplet feel. In other words, you will not hear "3" notes per se...the 1st 2 notes may be tied together. Regardless of that, the beat is still subdivided into 3rds.
1_a2_a3_a4_a etc
If this was a Math class...the 1st Beat has 2 components: The 1st bass note would = 66.67% with the 2nd note = 33.33%.
The individual's interpretation of this % can alter the feel/swing factor.


Just food for thought.