This exercise is going to push us to count threes, fours, and fives at the same time. Starting with the five-stroke kick pattern that we’re now familiar with, we’re going to replace the right-hand quarter-note count with a dotted-eighth count. This effectively replaces the four-count with a three as we’re placing a right-hand accent every three sixteenth notes. The tricky part here is that we’re not changing the 5/4 feel of the groove, we’re literally just changing what the right hand is doing alongside hearing the 5/4 metronome.
You may find it effective to start by just playing the right-hand dotted-eighth pattern along to the 5/4 metronome. When you combine these things, you’re left with a 3/4 polyrhythm – you can learn more about that here. There’s also a more thorough course I’ve created specifically on this polyrhythm here.
Another useful starting point can be to play the right hand and the kick patterns together and get used to playing those first and really focus on where the right-hand lands. It starts by landing on the first and fourth 16th notes, within the first group of five. Then the 2 and 5, then the 3 and 1, and so on. It gets displaced forwards by one-sixteenth note, in relation to the five-count each time. It helps to count the five-count out loud and pay close attention to where the right-hand lands.
