Each pattern here can also be just as easily played by reversing your normal hand position so you play open-handed (leading with your weak hand).Īdditionally, playing open-handed will increase the coordination benefits you’ll take away from these grooves and will allow you to more easily incorporate your toms into the patterns.Ī few final ways to expand upon these ideas is to incorporate buzzes, diddles and rolls into the patterns. One of the great things about linear patterns is that you don’t necessarily benefit from that approach since each groove requires you to develop unique muscle memories. Most drummers will begin by playing with their dominant hand on the hi-hat and weaker hand on the snare. This enables you to experiment with a variety of stickings to see which ones work best for you. You’ve probably noticed that no stickings have been provided for these patterns. Paul Simon - 50 Ways to Leave Your Lover Expanding the Concept Steve Gadd’s simmering linear groove provides a strong contrast to the straight-ahead groove of the choruses, creating an additional layer of tension under the pensive and melancholic vocals. Take Paul Simon’s “50 Ways To Leave Your Lover” for example. Maintaining a balance with the main melody is important, and when done carefully the results can be amazing. It also should be noted that business of linear patterns can be used to offer a tasteful contrast to the rhythmic structure of a song. To create beats that sound more like one longer pattern, try substituting a hi-hat or soft snare note on count 3 for the bass drum note. However, since this approach will always put a kick drum on count three, it may sound like you’ve joined two shorter ideas together rather than created one unique longer pattern. To do this, combine patterns from the first group for counts 1 and 3 and using the second group for counts 2 and 4. You can create longer 4/4 patterns by combining two of these shorter 2/4 patterns. All of the patterns here conform to that concept, but keep this in mind when you create your own patterns. Linear grooves don’t have to have the kick on beat 1 and the snare on 2, but having a strong downbeat and backbeat helps these patterns blend better into most genres of music.
This gives the grooves a percolating quality and focuses the listener’s attention on the most important part of your groove - the kick and snare pattern.Īnother way to help keep your linear beats from sounding odd is to begin your patterns with a kick and place a snare on count 2. Try playing all the bass drum notes and the accented snare note strongly, while playing the hi-hat notes and unaccented snare notes much more softly. Perhaps the best way is to play them with a wide dynamic range. There are a couple of specific things you can do to help them fit seamlessly into more musical situations. Linear grooves have a unique sound that can sound a bit busy.
C-H) Combination Linear Grooves | Click to view full size. Patterns 9 through 16 should be used for the second half since they all begin with an accented snare note (the backbeat).Įx. Patterns 1 through 8 should be used for the first half of each beat since they all start with the bass drum (the downbeat). These building blocks will be just one beat long and with these you’ll create longer two-beat patterns by combining the blocks from one type with the other. The Big Idea Behind Linear Drummingįor this lesson we’re going to create linear patterns out of shorter “building block” patterns. For that reason, even if you don’t expect to use linear ideas very often, it’s still worthwhile to spend time developing your linear abilities.Įvery one of these patterns will require you to develop new “muscle memory”, so the coordination benefits you’ll obtain from working on these grooves can help you learn other drumming styles faster too. They are fantastic for improving your coordination, dynamics and timing. Linear drumming grooves are very popular and are useful in a variety of styles, especially funk, Latin, pop and gospel. The Beatles - "In My Life" Why Learn Linear Drumming?