i am infected. oh and it sucks when you see a little kid rip it on a kit.

i guess thats why i play slow and a lot of easy stuff.

hmm maybe i put to much time on working on drums. . . DOH

BD - It's near to impossible to diagnose what you may be doing wrong without seeing what you're doing. The best medicine would be to book some time with a good drum coach/teacher and ask for help.

Nine times out of ten it's going to be -technique- that is the problem. Maybe you're too tense when you try to speed up. Maybe it's in the grip; holding the sticks too tight, not relaxed enough. There is a swinging motion from hand to hand, your arms do it to, when you play triplets. It could be any one of several things causing the problem. I highly recommend you watch; Jo Jo Meyers' Secrets Of The Modern Drummer and Tommy Igoes' Great Hands For Life videos. You will find both of those tremendously helpful in terms of proper technique. After you have that info, it's just practice, practice, practice. Fast triplets are not hard at all. You just need to figure out what you're doing wrong that is preventing execution of triplets at high speed. (Triplet rolls) Your technique is the likely culprit.

John

You have what is commonly called "White Mans Disease"...but have faith, it is not fatal! I have had many students who suffer from the same problem...you just gotta learn how to swing, or rather play a 3 over 4/2. Don't play and over think it...walk it! Take something like any Bernard Purdie (not kissing up here John) groove & put it on your MP3 player, pop on a set of phones & just go walking...but walk to the straight 8 (or 4, however you count), get comfortable with the gate. When you get that, just start talking/singing the trips (1 and uh, 2 and uh)...I personally like Babylon Sisters off of Steely Dan's Aja disk. Get comfortable with it, then start tapping it out with your hands while you walk...downbeats on feet, and sing the trips/feel/groove and double what you're singing on your hands, just enjoy the song & let the music come to you! It's very easy! Walk to the tempo and sing/talk/slap out the groove...if you can walk it & talk it, you can damn sure play it! Hang-ups are between the ears, get away from the kit & go walking around listening to music!...not all great practice is done sitting on a stool behind those damn tubs.

Carmine Appice's "Realistic Rock" has a few good sections on this. The suggestion of non-practice practice is also sound.

I've found this to be a good song to practice triplets with (it's worked for a few students):

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XsxEfmhmDXg"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XsxEfmhmDXg[/ame]

Don't worry about playing the beat on the kit, work it hand-to-hand: 1 and 3 will happen on your starting hand, 2 and 4 will happen on the opposite hand. Don't forget to start with your weak hand a few times also.

Eventually, you should be able to feel it enough to play it as a beat.

Hey Larry, Hang in there man. Hopefully we can find a cure right here on VDF!

Thanks for all the tips.

To you teachers out there, I have had no formal lessons in drumming ever. I cannot read music and I have no idea what 1/8th, 1/4 or counts are. Wish I did as it would most likely help me through this. I can keep up with the song by James Brown, the tip given here, thank you for that. By the way, loved the hardest working man in show business, the late Mr. Dynamite.

Purdie Shuffle is dead on that it is my technique as I really have not developed one yet I think. I started about a month ago and cannot improve.

I try to stay lose, sticks in the non traditional manner although I do not play regularly that way. I feel that my pedal work might be the culprit not sure why though. Wondering if the old Speed King is letting me down.(?)

V2K, thanks for the tip on watching Terry Keating. I can see I'm going to be spending a lot of time checking out his videos. Was he playing on your kit in that vid? He's a riot!

I really could just go on with out ever doing a triplet. I can do other things. But, being a Bonzo fan, well you know the rest of the story.

Vintage that is a great video showing the foot involvement well done...

Here is a clip of a solo by grand funk railroad drummer Don Brewer the solo starts around the 3.00 min mark Don is not the wolds best but he has a great groove and awesome timing and audience participation and the whole solo is basically built around the triplet .. shows back then were very physically demanding I think being in playing shape is of utmost importance...

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vyrZ_6tlfJQ[/ame]

Thankyou mike t for putting that video up of don brewer. Cheese and rice! That brought back some memories. I remember when I was about nine or ten years old, a friend of my dad gave me a tape he'd put together of drum solos. And that solo was on the tape. Absolutely brilliant to put a visual to my sonic memory. And what a drummer. Jeez Louise. He got some stamina. Phew.

Yeah in a era of huge kits don played a relatively small set but he used every bit of it and the triplets are a rhythm thing once you find your rhythm with them the possibilities are endless Don Brewer had a awesome right foot..