i have some sextuplet runs in my highschool show and our line has problems with it.
start slow and make everyone count out loud. then speed it up
if they are waiting for the people before them to play then they will be off because it takes time to react to it.

also make sure that sound of the run is balanced and that no-one bass drum sticks out of the sound.

I wouldn't even attempt splitting anything faster than a 16th (depending on tempo of course) for more than 2 notes, and even with those, you have to be careful and use it sparsely. This is partly because of ability and limitiations of drummers but also, the ability and limitations of the drums themselves.

For the players, it will take tons of work to get it right. With all of the cleaning and fixing that needs to be done over the course of marching season, you would spend weeks learning this one part, and probably a month perfecting it. You can get a very similar sound without writing such a difficult part. Lets say you want a 12345 pattern, switch it to 11335. If perhaps later in the season your bass 2 or 4 can hit that off beat consistantly, add them in. Otherwise you might be biting off more than you can chew.

As for the drums themselves, bass drums reverb for a much longer time the smaller drums in the line (obviously). If a 16th note split part lasts for more than a count or two, eventually, you will have a ton of whitenoise coming from the drums and it will start sounding garbled.

Just a thought.

Tan

yea I've started practicing it a lot more and what works for me is thinking how it sounds and then playing it. I'm pretty sure that if I can get the first split note in there then I can get the rest.

Well for fours, our bass tech has us play them as doubles in the right hand for a few reps and when it sounds clean consistentley he tells us, "Now don't change anything except add the left hand in now." And usually that works.

For threes, it's a little more difficult. It all comes down to the individual player's interpretation of the three. If it sounds crushed and you think your playing it ok, it's always safer to open them up.

Split singles are broken in two categories. Downs and ups. The person with the downs has the easy part. His part is countable, either 16th notes or 8th note triplets.

The person with the ups has to split these rhythms. In order for the split rhythm to be perfect, the "ups" person has to play the same exact rhythm as the "downs" person, except staggered to where it is splitting. So to break it down, the hand speed is exactly the same, you just have to get comfortable with where to come in and when you come in, to keep that consistent hand speed.

An exercise I have played in prior basslines to perfect this is called Chipotle.

There are 3 different sections to Chipotle-Taco, Burrito, and Enchilada. Here is an example with the top 2 basses split a sixtuplet. *The top bass (Downs) plays the same rhythm the whole exercise. It goes like this.

TACO: Both basses play a triplet with one hand but bass 2 (ups) does not play a release.


BURRITO: Bass 2 places one note in between the first 2 notes. It should sound like a herta.



ENCHILADA: Taco gets the hand speed, burrito gets the attack. In a perfect world, if you put it together, you'll have a perfect split six, Enchilada. Bass 2 plays 3 notes with the correct attack and hand speed splitting the downs.

Hopefully this helps out. If you didn't understand anything in the post feel free to msg me. This exercise has worked very well for my basslines in the past.

What I do is I count 16th notes (1e&a) on my right hand, while filling in the gaps with my left. But make sure your left is at equal volume as your right. Most people tend to accent the right counting it the way I do. But yeah, start on slower tempos and work it until you can play at that tempo with ease. ^.^

Yeah, subdivision is always key. I teach snares the same way when they struggle with playing even singles. I'd have to say I concede any bass knowledge to Robbie, he's our go to guy. But my only addition would be from something I notice with snares.

As you increase tempo, be sure that you are not dragging the left hand. I've noticed with my students that when they count the right hand subdivision and fill in the wholes as stated by Robbie that the left hand will drag a little. Causing a little of a slurred sound. Keep everything even. Both sound AND hand to hand tempo.

I have always taught splits as a "feel" concept rather than a counting concept. There's really no way to count something as fas as a split 32nd.

What I usually do (similar to the aforementioned "Chipotle" method), is have both players play the check at the same time. i.e. if the split is 2 beats of 32nd notes, I would have them both play 16ths together. Then after they both have a feel for the hand speed, get the second player to feel their entrance.

An important bit of knowledge for bass drum:
You can not wait for the person before you to play their part, but you also can not ignore everyone else's part and play your 16th note triplet on the upbeat of 3. As a bass drum player, you have to know the ENTIRE part, not just yours. 5 as 1 means that the five (or however many) players are playing 1 part. A trumpet player doesn't learn all of his B-flats and then rely on other people for the other notes, same thing with bass drum. Knowing the entire part and hearing it in your head as you are playing makes it easier to memorize, easier to balance, and easier to flow. Awareness to the entire ensemble is key as a bass drummer.

I also like to feel the part of my feet. I have played bass 2 for a while and for the up beat parts I think R R foot with the Lefts filling in evenly...if you can get that coordination down between foot and hand, the 32nd split will be in time.

I've really just learned to line it up with my feet.

For 16ths i know it is:

Foot e a Foot ...etc (if you're splitting 16th notes)

For 24th notes

I just know to play the middle note of the sextuplet and then its like a swung 8th notes