One of the earliest posts on this blog was this linear idea. I originally used it to develop new soloing vocabulary, but later found that it was also cool for creating linear grooves, or as a technical exercise for dynamic control between your limbs, and improving your ear.
I've been using it in my teaching for years, and some students take it to the next level where we begin combining different rhythms into the same stickings. The principle remains exactly the same; it just gets harder as two beats of each phrase switch to triplets. Some are easier than others. The very first phrase, for example, comes out nice and square. But when we move on to the next phrase, the gear change happens in the middle of the three beats.
As with the original post, where this exercise really comes into it's own is with the accents. Once you can move freely in between any of the phrases, and place the accents anywhere you want you can create pretty much endless melodic combinations. Another cool sound is to play the unaccented notes almost inaudibly, like ghost notes.
I wrote it in 8th notes and triplets as it's easier to read, but you can obviously think of it and feel it in 16th notes and sextuplets as well.
You can download the PDF here.
