For this 5/8 groove construction lesson you will be using groups of six 16th notes starting either at the start of the bar or mid way through to decorate simple groove patterns. You will be using two feet for these examples and pushing the tempo a little higher to make some cool sound patterns that would fit nicely in a hard rock or metal piece. I have only given common time examples here but this movement works just as well in half or double time parts.
To familiarize you with how the sixteenth note movement works, I'll start by giving a quick exercise. In this exercise you will play three eighth note bass drums in the first half of the bar. In the second exercise you double these up to sixteenth notes by playing left feet on the '+' counts.
Spend some time getting comfortable with the exercise and how the left foot is used to fill in the notes between the eighth notes. As usual, start with a low tempo but build up to a higher tempo than you would normally. This exercise makes a quite nice groove on it's own. Listed below are some variations on this exercise where the 16th notes are placed either at the start or end of the bar. Use the given parts as a starting point for creating your own variations on the concept, you can find a collection of links to other 5/8 groove construction lessons at the bottom of the page. Use these as inspiration.
5/8 Groove Construction Example 1
5/8 Groove Construction Example 2
5/8 Groove Construction Example 3
5/8 Groove Construction Example 4
TASK
- Using the 2 minute rule, get all grooves up to a tempo of at least 160bpm.
- Create further variations on these grooves.
- Apply these grooves to a phrased piece.
- Experiment with different lengths of double kick.
