Seven is the magic number.

Watch Groove Of The Week #79 on Instagram

This week’s groove is built on a similar idea to groove of the week #77. Groove #77 was based on a repeating 5 note pattern played between the bass drum and hi-hat. Groove #79 is based on a 7 note pattern played between bass drum and hi-hat. Let’s check it out.

Get The Groove

The place to start is with the 7 note pattern we’re playing throughout this groove.

7 16th note pattern — Seven notes of groove

Play this pattern repeatedly beween your hi-hat and bass drum to get used to how it feels.

Next we’re going to apply that to a 2 bar pattern. We’re going to apply the 7 note grouping over 16th notes. There are 32 16th notes in 2 bars, the 7 note grouping can be repeated 4 times with 4 16th notes left over. We’ll just play the first 4 notes of the 7 note pattern at the end of the groove.

Repeating 7s across two bars — (16×2)/7 = I hate math

Take note of where each 7 note group starts within the two bar pattern. I also pay particular attention to where the 2 consectutive notes on the hi-hat occur – focusing on where they happen can help you to check that you’re playing the groove correctl. You are counting right?

The final step is to add in the backbeat snare on beats 2 and 4 of each bar.

Take It Further

You can shorten the 2 bar pattern above to just a 1 bar groove and you’ll get a funky groove. You can also change the last 4 notes of the 2 bar pattern to give a different ending. You could also add in some open hi-hats to the groove. Then, you could also come up with you’re own 7 note pattern and apply that as a 2 bar groove.

But… to bamboozle your listeners and bandmates further, you could play the whole seven bar pattern that these seven 16th notes create. This is a good way to work on your focus and independence. Here’s the full 7 bar pattern. The first two bars will look familiar.

To make this more musical, add a 1 bar drum fill on the end to create an 8 bar pattern and then throw it into your next drum break / drum solo.

I hope you’ve enjoyed groove of the week #79. If you’re in Singapore and you’d like a free trial drum lesson, send us a message via the contact us page.