In this lesson you will be learning grooves in 7/8 that are built around a syncopated rhythm. To achieve this you will come away from the standard groupings of this time signature by playing sixteenth notes in a '3 3 3 3 2' pattern. The '332' rhythm is one that has been explored in many different ways through the last few levels so you will hopefully be fairly familiar with a lot of the content on this page. This new rhythm can be thought of an extension of this '332' pattern that has an extra two sixteenth notes at the end.
At the bottom of the page you will find a list of links to other lessons that may be useful in learning the parts on this page. If you are unfamiliar with describing rhythms with numbers this is explained in several of those lessons.
To build up the grooves on this page you first need to be familiar with the base rhythm. This is obviously described by the numbering but this is notated below with phrase markings and accents to clarify the grouping.
Spend some time getting familiar with this base rhythm as everything on this page relies on this grouping of sixteenth notes.
The groove patterns on this page are all constructed by orchestrating this rhythm in two different forms then applying right hands in various different ways. There are obviously many other ways this rhythm can be applied but they will explored in other lessons. For the first orchestration, the first note of the grouping will be played on the snare then the other notes will be on kicks. Like this:
The second version of this is the exact reverse. So the first note is played on a kick and the rest on the snare. Like this:
Again, spend time familiarizing yourself with these two parts to get a feel for the new time signature. Listed below are several versions of these parts with right hands applied, a note has been included in each to explain what the right hand is doing.
Example 1
The right hand plays straight eighths on a closed hi hat.
Example 2
Straight eighths on the ride with the reverse orchestration.
Example 3
Applying quarter note right hands as much as possible. Quarter notes don't fit evenly into a bar of 7/8 so you either have two quarter notes and a dotted quarter note or three quarter notes and a quaver. The later is applied here on the right side crash. Notice that these right hands alternate between falling on a snare and a kick.
Example 4
The same right hand idea is applied but on a second crash cymbal with the reverse orchestration.
Example 5
The right hand falls with the snares in this example. China cymbals are used here. Notice how when applied with this orchestration the right hand accents the start of each grouping.
Example 6
The same idea applied to the reverse orchestration using the ride bell.
Example 7
Apply the right hand with the bass drums, in this case using open hi hats.
Example 8
The same right hand idea applied to the reverse orchestration. As with example 5, the right hand now accents the start of each grouping.
TASK
- Learn all grooves up to a tempo of at least 125bpm.
- Experiment with different orchestrations of the base rhythm.
- Apply different right hand rhythms and orchestrations.
- Apply these pattern within a longer phrase.
