Grooves of the world
Once you can hold a clave, whole grooves open up. Each one below is eight steps in 4/4. What makes them different is who plays which step: the low voice or the high one.
From theory: time signatures
These come from the world-beats sections of the madal and tabla rooms. Here you hear them as rhythm; there you play them on a drum.
Compare the baião with the habanera on the groups page. Same hits, different grooves: the name belongs to the pairing of rhythm and voices, not to the steps alone.
- Tap the count with your foot. Listen to the low line alone and clap it.
- Now listen to the high line and clap that.
- Put them together slowly. The groove is how they fit.
- Play it on your instrument through its own room.
Before you go on
- Clap the low and high lines of the maqsum separately, then together
- Hold the empty first beat of the one drop
- Say which groove you are hearing with the names hidden
Play it on your instrument
You have been clapping this. On an instrument it is the same rhythm, with each clap played as a note or stroke while you keep tapping the count.
- Drums: Rock, funk and the other kit grooves: who plays which step, low or high. Rock and pop · Funk
- Madal: Maqsum, baião, one drop, bhangra and cumbia: low and high strokes. World beats
- Tabla: The same grooves with tabla bols. World beats
Every lesson on every instrument: Take it to your instrument.