For this groove construction idea you will be taking this Level 2 Co Ordination Exercise and adding in some hi hats and snares to create an open handed groove. This groove will be recreating a constant 16th note double kick pattern but with a slightly different sound. Why would you want to do this? If you are a single kick player but like the idea of throwing in some double kick style stuff this is the sort of pattern you would use. Or if you play a lot of double kick and are getting sick of using the same pattern all the time, you could throw in some of this. Also, it's just a cool groove!
Throughout this page you will build a 4/4 common time groove using this concept step by step. In later lessons you will translate the same idea to half time, double time and various other time signatures. Being familiar with the exercise linked above already will really help with this lesson.
Eighth Note Hi Hat Version
Let's start with a version of this groove that uses eighth notes on the right hand. You'll start by taking the original exercise linked above and move all snare notes to a floor tom played with the right hand. That would give you this:
Next let's add in the hi hats. As mentioned above, this groove is played open handed so these will be played with the left hand and will fall on all floor tom strikes. The hi hats can be opened or closed, whichever you prefer the sound of. With hi hats you get this:
Finally, snares are going to be added to complete the groove. You can do this with either the left or right hand and both versions are shown below. I personally prefer using my right hand but it all depends on what sound you want from the groove. The images below show the two versions of the complete groove:
Adding Snares With The Right Hand
Adding Snares With The Left Hand
As you can see, if you use the right hand for the snare it allows the hi hat to play continous eighths where as using the left alows the floor tom to kick 16ths to continue un broken.
Quarter Note Hi Hat Version
Now let's have a go at a similar pattern but using quarter note hi hats instead. The floor tom to kick pattern will remain the same but the hi hats create a bit more of a four way independance challenge as they are no longer following the floor tom exactly. Without snares, the new pattern looks like this:
The options for adding snares are the same again, either with the right or left. Two versions of the complete quarter note right hand groove are shown below.
Adding Snares With The Right Hand
Adding Snares With The Left Hand
TASK
- Learn all exercises upto a tempo of at least 150bpm.
- Experiment with orchestration.
- Apply this pattern to a phrased example as either the groove or fill.
Example Piece
Below I have provided a short piece showing how these patterns could be applied practically. Click the button below to download the free PDF.
