9 Tuplets | Snare Drum Technique

9 Tuplets, or Nonuplets | Snare Drum Technique

In this video, I explore 9-tuplets, sometimes called nonuplets or nontuplets. These are subdivisions which divide the beat into nine even parts. When properly understood against the underlying triplet, they can be surprisingly simple to learn, and present a wide array of rhythmic options.

For a deeper theoretical look at tuplets, see this video:

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[DrummingWomble]

Very helpful. I'm now gonna use this in my compostional works!

[beatolicious]

Consice and clear teaching/instruction/sharing style, thank you for your efforts!

[terrytk]

What Beatolicious said! 😀Every word & sentence from the presenter is worth its weight in gold. To tackle the material discussed here will occupy a drummer’s mind for a while and raise the skill set to new heights. A truly wondrous and joyous exploration of rhythm expertly dissected then executed. A must for anyone who seeks a musical challenge.

[Thequornsdrummingworld]

This is a great lesson! It brings some great ideas into focus in dealing with a subdivision not often discussed or thought about. However in doing so it highlights a kind of limitation of Western rhythmic theory which always tends to look at grouping notes within any subdivision relative to their relationship to the quarter note pulse they start on, so 8th notes are grouped in two's, triplets or 12th notes are grouped in three's, 16th note's in fours ect. This is a a real limited point of view, because any subdivision can be grouped in any number quite easily up to 9 and beyond. If this was taught as a possibility from the beginning, what becomes or is perceived down the road as a very complex and advanced methodology, becomes a very straightforward play of numbers, child's play even, as it is perceived in South India.
In other words one could easily look at grouping notes in any subdivision as 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9 and any combinations of those groupings. I think the fundamental obstruction has been that there is no agreed upon holistic counting method for subdivisions to begin with in the West, there is not even an agreed upon system of naming subdivisions, yet alone counting them within their own inherent grouping, or any alternative grouping. We have relied upon notation to conceptualize these possibilities, but in order to internalise these rhythmic structures, the straight forward and most expedient tool is an aural counting or singing system. There is a step needed before one can just "read" these kind of rhythmic possibilities. So to learn a rhythmic language for subdivisions and these 8 possible note groupings within them will give us a foundation to deal with anything we come across notation wise, and not just in one isolated instance.
Once one has such a rhythmic language, the rest is fundamentally straight forward and feeling things in groups of threes to deal with nanotuplets, is only one most obvious possibility, one could group them in any combination of 2 2 2 3 or simply 4 2 3 or 4 5. One can then think about or assign them to a variety of stickings, and rudiments are already perfectly structured for various groupings already, a paradiddle =4, a double paradiddle =6, a two stroke roll =2, a five stroke roll =5 and so on.
To name subdivisions I toke the American system and simply choose to use its numeric logic across all subdivisions resulting in : 8th, 12th (triplets), 16th, 20th (quintuplets), 24th (sextuplets), 28th (septuplets), 32nd and 36th notes or nanotuplets. For counting alternate groupings across these 8 subdivision the South Indian Konnokol is really expedient and can be learned and applied quickly and easily, one can then start counting groupings from 2 to 9 across all the subdivisions enumerated above, creating exercises to do so will be quite obvious, and I recommend starting with the subdivisions one is most familiar with and using the Konnokol itself to familiarise oneself with those more challenging such as 20th, 28th, 32nd and 36th notes.
Thanks Jonathan for a fantastic tutorial!

[sdfjsd]

During improvisational segments, I've heard various Indian instrumentalists switch between 9, 10, 6, and 5 tuplet patterns without stopping and still doing variations of each tuplet rythm in between. I've done this switching myself, though it needs some work.

[SagiDrums]

I love Nonuplets, I use them a lot in drum fills (John Bonham triplets, 1 hand 2 kick) or as double stroke with accent at the beginning.

Amazing lesson 🥁