"The way I would describe it would be, if you can imagine a triplet being played for every beat, it would be the third note of the
triplet."

That is indeed the way jazz players phrase "swung eighths," written as eighth notes but with a swing feel specified.

A straight shuffle--like a boogie woogie" on the other hand has been described as a "dotted eighth, sixteenth" combination. Small, subtle, but important difference.

What do you guys think? Country shuffle as "triplet" or as "dotted eighth + sixteenth"?

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Bill L | My steel page | Email | My music | Steeler birthdays | Over 50?

I've always been amazed at the "new generation's" lack of appreciation for the "backbeat". If the drummer doesn't "handle" it, rythynm guitar or keyboards do it well too.

Here's a twist and something to try, if only in your mind or private space.

It's gotten my by a lot of times in these "Duplex" songs.

Try playing every other backbeat as a "dotted note" and the other a straight eigth note. You might see that some of the "old stuff" was done closely to that. It's a good mental excersize if nothing else.

There was an Old School Drummer, Don Kappa, here in town that used to play with Jimmy Patton that had a backbeat that was about perfectly in between the two. He called it a "half shuffle".

I'm not old enough to know if that "duplex rythym" stuff was on purpose or not. Often it occurs when a lead singer trys to play rythym behind, say "The Fireman" and ends up dotting his backbeats on the upswing. It is really annoying, especially if the drummer is to lazy to play eighth notes and trys to "bounce" them. One guy, I called "Shuffle Buck" did it with every str8 song he did, hence my nickname for him...

... tell me that I haven't played in a few "bar bands".....