I’ve been working on Steve Fidyk’s excellent article in the recent MD. It’s always amazing to me that many concepts we use have been around for such a long time—although named differently as they evolve—and we’re often developing these same ideas independently of each other. I stumbled upon this concept a number of years ago but had never given it a name or developed it. I had no idea that Jim Chapin taught this, although it doesn’t surprise me. He was way ahead of us in many areas—a brilliant man.

Here’s a lesson that’s based on this collapsing concept. When I had my percussion trio, I found many of these kinds of combinations while exploring ideas for our music. The attached lesson is inspired by both Steve’s lesson in MD and what I was learning about the Afro-Cuban rhythmic tradition.

My idea involves playing one time signature inside of another (in this case, 5/8 or 7/8 inside of 6/8). I took a sticking, orchestrated it, collapsed it, and then applied that material to 6/8 time using a dotted-quarter-note pulse, as is often found in Afro-Cuban music. The feet supply the pulse throughout this lesson as the hands apply the concept. Enjoy!
David Garibaldi