Four Sixteenth Note Double Kick Groove In 4/4

For this lesson you will be using groups of four 16th notes starting on either beat 1, beat 3 or both. You will be using two feet for these grooves and pushing the tempo a little higher to make some cool sound patterns that would fit nicely in a hard rock or metal piece.

To familiarize you with how the sixteenth notes work I'll start by giving a quick exercise. In this exercise you will play two eighth note bass drums in the first half of the bar. For the second half of the bar you will be four sixteenth notes using both feet. In both halves of the bar the right foot is playing on the numbered count and the '+' count, the left foot adds the 'e' and 'a' counts. The exercise is shown below with bar eighth and quarter notes on the right hand:

An exercise

Spend some time getting comfortable with the exercise and how the left foot is used to fill in the notes between the eighth notes. As usual, start with a low tempo but build up to a higher tempo than you would normally, around 160bpm would be good.

This exercise makes a quite nice groove on it's own. Listed below are some variations on this exercise where the 16th notes are placed either at the start, on beat 3 or on both. In each exercise and example of both crotchet and quaver right hands has been given.


Example 1

Sixteenth notes at the start of the bar.

Example 1


Example 2

Sixteenth notes at the start of the bar, groove applied to the second half.

Example 2


Example 3

A variation on the groove above.

Example 3


Example 4

Sixteenth notes halfway through the bar.

Example 4


Example 5

Sixteenth notes halfway through the bar with grooves applied.

Example 5


Example 6

A variation on the groove above.

Example 6


Example 7

Sixteenth notes both at the start of the bar and halfway through.

Example 7


TASK

  1. Using the 2 minute rule, get all grooves with eighth note right hands up to a tempo of at least 160bpm.
  2. Using the 2 minute rule, get all grooves with quarter note right hands up to a tempo of at least 180bpm.
  3. Create further variations on these grooves.
  4. Apply these grooves to a phrased piece.

Lessons

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