Simple. Syncopated. Speedy.

This week’s groove is a syncopated beat with quarter notes on the hi-hat and an open hi-hat on beat one of every second bar. It’s going by pretty quick though at 180bpm. Are your offbeats accurate enough to keep up?

Get The Groove

There’s not a lot to this groove. There are no paradiddles, sixteenth note triplets, 32nd notes, ghost notes etc… It’s just a simple rock beat. However, the speed we’re playing it at may cause a little trouble for some. Let’s look at the groove a bar at a time. First up, the first bar:

This is a fairly straight forward bar. The open hi-hat on beat 1 might be new for you. Make sure to open it precisely on beat 1 and close is precisely on beat 2.

Here’s the second bar:

This bar might feel a little strange, there is no bass drum on beat one, this often throws beginner drummers off. Take it slow and count. Go slowly and get the sequence into your limbs… Hi-Hat, Bass Drum, Hi-Hat, Snare Drum, Hi-Hat, Bass Drum, Snare & Hi-Hat together.

Once you can play both bars separately, then you can try the full groove:

Taking It Further

This is the kind of groove I like to jam around with in my practice time. I’ll sit and play it and look for variations and see where I can take it. Just allowing myself to play freely to see what ideas it inspires – often ending up in a completely different groove and feel.

When I’m playing like this I often incorporate what I call Groove Fills. With a groove fill you keep the time going with your right hand, and vary the bass and snare drum. We’re not breaking away from the hi-hat pattern to play on the toms, we’re keeping the momentum of the hi-hat going but changing up the bass and snare. Here’s some examples for this groove:

The first variation sees us just changing the ending. Putting a bass drum on beat 4 and moving the snare drum to the “&” of 4.

The second variation delays the snare drum until the very end of the beat, this creates a lot of tension in the groove.

The third and fourth variations are very common groove fills that work well with this groove and many others.

I suggest you play the original groove 3 times and then follow it up with one of these variations to create a useful 8 bar pattern. Then try and create your own groove fill variations.

I hope you’ve enjoyed groove of the week #61. If you’re in Singapore and you’d like a free trial drum lesson, send us a message on the contact us page