In this lesson you will learning another variation on the 16 beat groove that involves altering the base rhythm to a '1 +a2e+' pattern rather than straight sixteenths. Again, this will create a very different feel and can be used as a stand alone groove or a nice variation when playing a lot of straight 16 beat. At the bottom of the page you will find links to other lessons you may find useful.
Remember that for this style of groove the snare tends to be notated in voice 1 to clarify the single stroke roll played on the hands. Below is an example of what the hands will play for this pattern when played in common time. Note that as in the previous version of this groove the back beat snares are played with the right hand.
The hi hats here can be either open or closed but closed hi hats give a more precise, clear sound that allow the rhythm to be heard. The rhythm is very easy to apply to half time versions of the groove and that would look like this:
Below I have provide several examples of bass drums applied under this hand pattern to create some grooves. I have tried to throw in quite a few 'curve balls' here by combining the rhythm with other concepts, remember you can always jump back to our Level 0 Grooves List to find some more straight forward kick parts. One of these curve balls is the addition of offbeat kicks and snares. I always like the way these fall with this rhythm as they go in the 'gap', on the 'e' or 'a' count.
Example 1
Example 2
Example 3
Example 4
Example 5
Example 6
Example 7
Example 8
TASKS
- Learn the grooves above up to a tempo of at least 120bpm.
- Create some 4 bar phrases using these grooves.
- Try moving the hands to other parts of the kit to create more grooves.
