So far we have learned how to Read Simple 1 Bar Grooves and how to move the right hand to various other parts of the kit. The next step in our introduction is to expand these patterns to become two bars long. Whilst we could cheat and just play one of the patterns previously learned twice, we are going to do something a bit more creative than that.
Through the course of this guide we will discuss ideas for creating more musical two bar patterns. In each exercise you are only given finished grooves with either eighth or quarter note right hand parts. Hopefully you will now recognize a lot of the parts but if you do struggle, try and break the groove down using the 'rhythm first' method.
In this first example the whole groove will be based on the pattern shown below.
Whilst this pattern is two bars long, we are not going to count this as a two bar groove as both bars are the same. To create the kind of pattern we are after we will edit part of the groove so that there is some small variation between the two bars.
Notice how the Crotchet (Quarter Note) kick and snare on beats 1 and 2 are repeated 4 times through the whole groove. To create our 2 bar pattern, we will pick one of the occurrences of this and add in an extra Quaver (Eighth Note) kick drum. In the example below we have done this on the '+' after beat 3 of the second bar. So we have altered the fourth repetition of beats 1 and 2:
We can take this concept of varying one beat to create several versions of the same groove. Just take the extra note added in on the '+' after 3 and move it around. For example:
So the concept here applies to grooves where a pattern is repeated, in this case beats 1 and 2 are repeated four times over the course of two bars, and to create a 2 bar pattern we just alter one occurrence of the repeated part.
We'll try this concept again on a similar groove. We'll start with the pattern:
And below are two variations on this pattern where we have changed 1 occurrence of the repeated part.
So this is a very simple idea that quite effectively creates new groove patterns.
TASK
- Try varying the two given start patterns above with your own ideas for varying the part.
- Below are two more grooves with a repeated part. Come up with your own 2 bar versions of these
