From theory — Western theory · Note values. Rhythm room: Grooves of the world · Swing and feel. Each style is a rhythm from the room, set on the kit.
Sangeet Yatra

Grooves by Style

Everything here is the same four limbs doing the same jobs. What changes between styles is where the kick sits, how the beat is divided, and how loud the soft notes are.

Rock and pop

The backbeat on 2 and 4 with eighths on the hat. Move the kick and you have most of the radio. Your first groove builds this one limb at a time. The steps here are the same bar, played as a style you come back to.

  1. Set BPM to 70. Count “1 2 3 4” and play the kick on 1 and 3, the snare on 2 and 4. Leave the hat out.
  2. Add the hat on every eighth: “1 & 2 & 3 & 4 &”. The hat does not stop.
  3. Second groove: move the kick onto every beat. Same snare, same hat. Only the kick changed.
  4. When both stay even, raise the click by ten. If the hat rushes, drop back ten.

Half-time

Move the snare to beat 3 alone and the bar feels twice as long at the same tempo. Nothing slowed down — the backbeat just comes half as often.

  1. Play the rock beat once, so the snare on 2 and 4 is still in your hands.
  2. Move the snare to beat 3 only. Count “1 2 3 4” and hit the snare on the bold word.
  3. The hat is now four notes to a beat. Say “1 e & a” and keep those notes quiet and even.
  4. The click did not slow down. If the bar feels long, that is the half-time. Do not speed up to fix the feeling.

Triplets

Three even notes in the space of one beat. The rock beat above was two. Say “tri-pe-let” so that “tri” lands on the click. Each syllable is the same length, a little shorter than an eighth, because three of them fill the beat that two used to fill.

The columns are labeled 1 & a. That “&” is the middle of the three, not the halfway “&” of an eighth. Right hand on the hi-hat, left foot holding the pedal down. Right foot on the kick for 1 and 3, left hand on the snare for 2 and 4. Type 70 in the BPM box.

  1. Tap 1 2 3 4 on your knee with the click. The foot does not speed up.
  2. Say “tri-pe-let” four times, and land every “tri” on a tap.
  3. Play the hat on every syllable. Three hats to every click. If two of them bunch up, it has stopped being even.
  4. Add the kick and the snare. They stay on the numbers. Only the hat is in three.

The next groove is this one with the middle note left out.

Shuffle

The triplet you just played, without the middle note. Play the first and the last of each three. That long-short limp is the shuffle, and the count is “one-and-a, two-and-a” with the “and” left out.

  1. Set BPM to 70. Count “1 & a, 2 & a, 3 & a, 4 & a” and clap the number and the “a”. Leave the “&” out.
  2. Play that long-short on the hat. Snare on 2 and 4, kick on 1 and 3.
  3. The first of each three is the long note, the last is the short one. If they come out even, you are playing straight eighths.
  4. Raise the click only once the limp is obvious at the slow tempo.

6/8

Two beats to the bar, each divided in three. Common in ballads and in a great deal of folk music, including the compound feels the madal room counts in two.

  1. Count six out loud: “1 2 3 4 5 6”. Clap on 1 and 4. Those two claps are the big beats.
  2. Hat on 1, 3, 4 and 6. Kick on 1. Snare on 4.
  3. Say “1 2 3, 4 5 6”. Keep 2 and 5 empty in the feet.
  4. Speed up until it feels like two swings, not six separate clicks.

Waltz (3/4)

Three beats to the bar: strong, weak, weak. The kick takes the strong beat, the snare or a cross-stick takes the two weak ones, and the hat counts all three. The Rhythm room calls it the Waltz. Count 1 2 3 and never 1 2 3 4: the bar is one beat shorter than you are used to.

  1. Count “1 2 3” and stop. Do not add a 4.
  2. Kick on 1, snare on 2 and 3, hat on all three.
  3. Say the 1 louder. When 2 and 3 get as loud as 1, it has stopped being a waltz.
  4. At 90 you should still be able to walk the three. Feeling two beats means one of them dropped.

Funk

Sixteenths, a kick that moves constantly, and ghost notes filling the gaps. This one is not harder to read than the rock beat — it is harder to play softly enough, which is the entire style.

  1. Set BPM to 60. Play the kick, and only the loud snares (the big notes on 2 and 4). Leave the quiet notes out.
  2. Add the hat on the eighths, quieter than the backbeat.
  3. Add the ghost snares, the small notes between the backbeats. They stay quieter than the hat. A ghost as loud as the backbeat is too loud.
  4. Hold that for a minute at 60, then add five clicks. Not ten.

Gallop

On every beat: a long note, a rest, then two quick ones, dah da-da. Here the snare plays it, written exactly as the Rhythm room’s Gallop lists it, with the hat on the beat and the kick on 1 and 3. The two quick notes are the part that rushes: let the stick bounce rather than pushing it.

  1. Count sixteenths “1 e & a” and play only “1, & a” on the snare: a long note, a rest, two short ones. Hat and kick stay out.
  2. Let the two short notes bounce. Forcing both of them makes the second one late.
  3. Add the hat on the beat and the kick on 1 and 3.
  4. Raise the click only while the rest (the “e”) stays empty. A note in that rest means you rushed.

On the ride

Same shuffle, moved to the ride cymbal, with the bell marking the beat. The bell is the diamond, ◆. The × after it is the bow of the cymbal, the ordinary face. The ride's longer decay glues the bar together where a hat chops it up.

  1. Play the shuffle on the hat first, so the long-short is already in the hand.
  2. Move that pattern to the ride. The bell is the beat. The bow of the cymbal is the short note after it.
  3. Let the ride ring. A hat stops its note. A ride should keep sounding.
  4. Stay at the hat shuffle’s tempo. When the bell disappears, the bow is too loud.

Nine-eight (aksak)

Nine eighth notes to the bar, grouped 2+2+2+3. The three at the end makes the stride uneven, which is why the Turks call it aksak, “limping”. Here every cell is one eighth note, so the click is the eighth note and the bar is nine clicks long. Hat on every eighth, snare on the group starts, kick on 1 and 5.

  1. Set BPM to 90 and count out loud “1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9”. Do not group yet.
  2. Now say it grouped: “1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9”. The bold words are the snare. Three short groups, then one long one.
  3. Play the snare alone, then add the hat on every click, then the kick on 1 and 5.
  4. Raise the click ten at a time. Played fast it feels like “quick quick quick slow” and the nine disappears.

The three does not have to sit last. Move it to the front, or second, or third, and the same nine clicks feel like a different bar. Same hat. These three keep the kick on 1, and the snare moves to the start of each group. Count each one grouped: “1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9” for 3+2+2+2, “1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9” for 2+3+2+2 and “1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9” for 2+2+3+2.

  1. Keep BPM at 90. The hat and the kick do not change.
  2. 3+2+2+2: say “1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9” and play the snare on the bold counts.
  3. 2+3+2+2: snare on 1, 3, 6 and 8.
  4. 2+2+3+2: snare on 1, 3, 5 and 8.
  5. Switch from one grouping to the next without stopping the hat. A hiccup in the hat means the snare moved and the count did not.

Scotch snap

Swing puts a long note first and a short one after it. The Scotch snap (also called the Lombard rhythm) is the opposite: a short note lands on the beat, then a long one follows it. On the ride, the first hit is a short tick and the second one rings. You hear it in Scottish strathspeys, in Baroque music and in a lot of modern R&B.

  1. Count sixteenths: “1-e-and-a, 2-e-and-a”. Play the bold ones.
  2. The first hit is the beat and is quick. The second, on the “e”, is the long one, so let it ring.
  3. Play it on the ride bell with the kick on 1 and 3 and the hat pedal on 2 and 4.
  4. Slow it right down at first (60). At speed the two hits blur together and the hat pedal keeps you honest.
Learn one per week, not six in a day. A groove you can play for three minutes without thinking is worth more than six you can start.