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CHAPTER SEVEN - Afro Lines in 6

TheAfricaninlluenceinAfro-Cuban musicis moststronglyfelt in those pieces

thatareplayedin

6/8 (sometimeswrittenas3/4or l2l8).Thebasic pulseis usuallytwo dottedquarternotes per barsubdi-

videdintotv/o groups of three eighthnoteseach,asfollows:

The rhythmic complexity appears when you play threenotesagainstthis basictwo pulse,as

follows:

As you can see,thesetriplets (three against a two pulse) are written here asquarter notes and can

easily becomethedominantpulsethat you feel,but be sure you canalsofeel tlremasa polyrhythm against

thebasictwo beats per bar.It is therhythmic tensionof two againstthreethat givestheAfro 6/8 groove its

intensity.The following exercisesaredesigned to showyou how this all works.As before, integratingthe

rhythms written at the endof the transcriptionsinto your own playing is what will help you the most. So

make sureyou work on eachof them, one at a time.

l-cDr";1

lrRAcK #l0l

Afro-Cuban618

Qr-)

D,u/t

A,(iÍ)

A7(ill

Grtrf

D,rn/t

Dr*f'

A?09)

Dm/t