Let’s get linear for groove of the week #35.
Groove of the week 35 is a linear 16th note groove featuring the Toms. Let’s get to learning!
Learn The Groove
A linear groove is one where we don’t hit any drums or cymbals together. It’s just one drum or cymbal at the time. We’ve looked before at putting linear ideas in to regular grooves – groove of the week #23 is one of my favourites – but I don’t think we’ve done an entirely linear groove yet.
Let’s start by looking at the rhythm we’re going to make linear first.
To start with, make sure you are comfortable playing and counting this rhythm. Work with a metronome slowly and count out loud as you play it. We want that restart on the “e” of 3 to be accurate every time.
Our next step is to bring in the linear pattern that we’re going to apply over this rhythm.
Learn to play this pattern before attempting to orchestrate it around the kit. If you’re not experienced with linear drumming, then take it slow and learn it bit by bit. Get the first 4 notes, then try to add the next 3 notes. Once you can play the first 7 notes, look to learn the next 7 notes separately. Once you can play both sets of 7 notes, try playing the whole pattern.
Once you can play this pattern, we can start orchestrating it around the kit. Again, I’d work in 7 note chunks. Here’s the first 7 notes orchestrated.
In the first half of the groove, the left hand plays the hi-hat and snare, the right hand plays the toms. Once you can play this groove, then we can add orchestrate the 2nd half of the groove & create the full, awesome, groove.
Taking It Further
Let’s take this further by orchestrating the exact same pattern in slightly different ways.
Our first variation just has us reversing the order of the toms. Our first right hand is on the floor tom, then we have the two notes on the second tom, the final two notes are played on the first tom tom. This pattern just gives a slightly different melody to the groove.
The second variation has the right hand play only on the floor tom, this gives us a heavier, more powerful version of the groove.
The third variation has us move the left handed hi-hat notes to the first tom instead. The right hand plays only on the floor tom as in the second variation. This gives us a heavier groove again.
The final variation does away with the tom toms and puts all the right hand notes on the bell of the ride cymbal and the left hand moves between hi-hat and snare. This creates a funky groove with an off-beat ride bell pattern.
I hope you’ve enjoyed groove of the week #35. If you’re in Singapore and you’d like a free trial drum lesson, send us a message on our contact us page.