Reading and playing your first groove

A column is a moment in time. Everything in the same column happens together, and you play that column with the limb the piece belongs to. The columns run left to right, then loop back to the start.

Grid or staff

The same groove, written two ways. Read the grid, or read the staff. Every groove on this page, and on the pages after it, is written both ways.

Every piece, low to high, drawn the way the grooves below are drawn. The same key is Figure 10 on the sight-reading page.

Counting

The header row is how you say the bar out loud. This page is eight words: “one and two and three and four and”. The numbers are the four beats. Each “and” is halfway to the next one, and every word is one column. The names for those lengths live on Western theory · Note values. The smaller divisions, “e” and “a”, wait until Eighths and sixteenths.

Play it

One rock beat, one limb at a time. Do not add the next limb until the one you have is even. The box labeled BPM at the bottom of the screen is the speed, in beats per minute. It starts at 90. Type 60. That is one beat a second, and it will feel slow. Stay there. Rushing a new groove just teaches the rush. Say “one and two and three and four and” the whole way through. Each word is one column, and you play what that column shows.

Pattern click, under More, is a tick on each beat. It is not the speed. Leave it on, and say the count with it.

No kit yet: right hand on your right leg, left hand on your left leg, right foot on the floor. The limbs are the lesson. When you pick up sticks, the grip is on How to sit.

× closed hat · ● kick or snare · · rest. The staff under each grid is that same groove. Press ▶ to loop it. One groove plays at a time. Click one mark to hear just that sound.

Limb independence

Say “one and two and three and four and” until the eight words are even. Then one limb, on its own words. The kick first. The snare next. They are not in the same bar yet.

1. Kick alone. Right foot on “one” and “three”. Say every “and”, and play nothing there. If the foot rushes to the next number, the ands got skipped.

2. Snare alone. Left hand on “two” and “four”. The kick stays quiet. Same eight words. The hand that lands on “one” is early.

All three

Kick, snare, and hat, in that order. The kick and the snare already know their words. The hat is the new one, and the left foot holds it shut, which is what makes each hat hit short. That short hit is the ×.

1. Kick and snare together. They take turns: foot on “one” and “three”, hand on “two” and “four”. Landing on the same word means one of them moved.

2. Hat on the numbers, with those two. The right hand lands with the kick on “one” and “three”, and with the snare on “two” and “four”. Each “and” is still empty.

3. Hat on every word, including each “and”. Kick and snare stay on the numbers. This is the basic rock beat. When the hand, the foot, and the count land in the same columns, you are playing the groove you are reading.

If the three fall apart, go back to the limb that slipped, alone, still at 60. A book like The New Breed comes after this beat is boring. It is on Resources.

Four on the floor

Move the right foot to every number: kick on “one”, “two”, “three” and “four”. Hat and snare stay where they were. Only one limb changed, and the same bar turns into something you can dance to.