Back in level 1 you learned some Half Time grooves using eighth and quarter notes on the right hand. We discussed how 'half time' is the idea of moving the 'back beat' of a groove from beats 2 and 4 to beat 3, giving the part a slower feel without changing tempo. You can easily apply the 16 Beat hands idea to this feel which gives the interesting affect of a slower feeling groove with a faster rhythmic base for the hi hat.
The hands for these grooves will look like this:
Play single strokes ('R L R L') all the time, meaning the snare hit will be played with a right hand. Spend some time getting comfortable with this basic pattern then work through the list of exercises below that have bass drums added in.
Example 1
Example 2
Example 3
Example 4
Example 5
Example 6
Example 7
TASKS
- Learn the grooves above up to a tempo of at least 135bpm.
- Experiment with further kick placements.
- Use the alternate hand orchestrations discussed in other lessons.
- Create some 4 bar phrases using these grooves.
