1/8 note groove ex

Ok guys, this is the 8th note groove ex we've been using as a bit of a warm up for the last few weeks. Playing a bass drum on every 8th not except on beats 2 + 4. By practicing this beat properly you'll improve your stamina and speed and all round facility within your groove playing. It will help with playing fast 8th bass drum figures in fast rock tracks (a la Taylor Hawkins from the foo fighters) through to smooth even syncopated figures in drum and bass grooves 160 +bpm.

So here's the groove :

To get the benefit of this ex it's all down to how you practice it. It hinges on the principal that great playing is about simple things played well. Here's some things to think about while you get to grips with it:

1)TIMING practice to a metronome; start out using an 8th note click (so a click on 1 and the + of the  beat) to make sure your not rushing the 8th note. Start at 65-70 bpm going up in 6 or 7 bpm intervals    so you cover a range of tempos not just increments of 10. When this feels comfortable try using a quarter note click.

2)  RELAXATION; The aim is to build your co-ordination so you don't have think about your right  hand when your playing various bass drum pattern's. In order for that to happen you must be relaxed.
Aim to "throw" the right hand down onto the hi-hat and get the stick to bounce back up doing the
work for you. This is what will enable to you play comfortably at speed.

3) EVEN-NESS: This is partyly down to timing. Most people have a tendency to rush their bass drum playing more than one note at a time. This is most noticable when playing groups of three (as in this case) so be aware and avoid it. The other thing is even-ness of sound, if your bouncing the stick off the hi-hat correctly from the same height with the same force all the strokes should sound the same. Are all your snare drums and bass drums all the same volume?

4) VOLUME: Firstly how loud are you playing? Try practicing at different volumes, the best way to approach this is to try using different stick heights. The lower the stroke the lower the volume. Playing at 140 bpm plus at low volumes is a great exercise in control.
Secondly is your bass drum or snare drum much louder than everything else? Do you generally always   have loud a snare even when your trying to play quietly. This is called "internal dynamics"; how well all the different sounds on the kit are balanced next to one another, and being able to change and control that is an important part of setting up good "groove" and "feel". Record your self playing and listen to how you play.

It doesn't matter how advanced the player this ex is use-full and i will be posting a couple of variations to help with other aspects of 8th note co-ordination all based on this groove. Practiced properly you should see you abillity to play good solid time with feel and control right up to the 180 bpm mark and beyond. Five or ten minutes a day of this and you'll see dramatic improvement in your groove playing fast!!!

Essay over i hope this helps and look out for some of the variations that will go up over the next few weeks,

Pete