For this 7/8 groove construction lesson you will be taking groups of six 16th notes and playing them on the bass drum using two feet at various points in bar to decorate simple groove patterns. Using two feet for these examples and pushing the tempo a little higher makes some really cool sounding patterns that would fit nicely in hard rock or metal style songs. 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, all in 7/8.
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 I always say, start at a lower tempo then build gradually to a higher tempo than you would normally. Listed below are some variations on this exercise where the 16th notes are placed starting on various eighth note counts through the bar in both compound and simple time. 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 7/8 groove construction lessons at the bottom of the page. Use these as inspiration.
7/8 Groove Construction Example 1
7/8 Groove Construction Example 2
Example 3
7/8 Groove Construction Example 4
Groove Example 5
7/8 Groove Construction Example 6
Groove Construction Example 7
7/8 Groove Example 8
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.
