In this free groove construction lesson you will learn about the Bosa Nova, a latin rhythn with many drum kit application.
The Bossa Nova is a Latin drum beat that combines multiple layers of rhythms to create busy and exciting drum patterns. The main feature of most Latin styles is a 'Clave' which is a short, syncopated ostinato that uses alternating phrases of three and two beats. This is often played on percussion instruments like cowbells or timbales with more standard groove concepts being applied around this. The grouping for a standard Bossa Nova is '33433' where each number refers to a block of eighth notes. Using a side stick, played on its own that would look like this:
The next step will be to add in a right hand in a similar way to level 0 free groove lessons. For the sake of keeping things simple we'll limit that to eighth and quarter notes and any common voicing works fine. With eighth notes on the hi hat that looks like this:
Then with quarter note rides:
Next you can add in a 'backbeat' using the left foot on the hi hat pedal. As you are using the hi hat pedal, this works better with the right on the ride. Here are a couple of versions of this:
Then kicks can be added in. To fit with the latin style, these are best placed on the 1 and 3 or '+' counts. A few examples of this are given below, across the site there are countless free groove lessons that provide ideas for variation on kick rhythm.
TASK
- Learn all exercises up to a tempo of at least 150bpm.
- Experiment with orchestration.
- Apply this pattern to a phrased example as either the groove or fill.
- Look around our collection of free groove lessons for more ideas on multi layered groove construction.
