For this lesson you will be using groups of four 16th notes starting at various points in the bar. You will be using two feet for these grooves and pushing the tempo a little higher to make some cool sound patterns that would fit nicely in a hard rock or metal piece.
To familiarize you with how the sixteenth notes work I'll start by reminding you of a quick exercise. In this exercise you will play two eighth note bass drums in the first half of the bar. For the second half of the bar you will be four sixteenth notes using both feet. In both halves of the bar the right foot is playing on the numbered count and the '+' count, the left foot adds the 'e' and 'a' counts. The exercise is shown below with bar eighth and quarter notes on the right hand:
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, around 160bpm would be good. To create the 7/8 version you just cut an eighth note off the end of the bar of 4/4 or add an eighth note to a bar of 6/8.
Example 1
Example 2
Example 3
Example 4
Example 5
Example 6
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.
