Category: Beats, Grooves & Patterns

This lesson shows you a set of bass drum variations for your rock & funk beats. This means that bass drum notes may fall on…

This lesson shows you a set of combined bass drum and snare drum variations for your rock & funk beats. This means that bass drum…

These ‘swinging latin’ grooves came out of the bebop era, when Cuban percussion rhythms were being introduced to American jazz. They are often used in…

In this video, you’ll see 55 different 4/4 drum fills that you can copy and try out in your own drumming. They start out simple…

This lesson introduces the Twelve-Eight Rock Beat: a great rhythm to learn when you’re learning rock and also interested in music that uses the shuffle…

This lesson gives you some simple ideas to add flavor to your Twelve-Eight rock beats.

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In this mini-lesson, Sacha demonstrates some great swing coordination exercises that really put your snare drum and bass drum to work! When you practice these…

Steve Gadd invented some killer grooves over the years and this is one of my favourites. It’s incredibly simple but really, very cool when used…

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Learning the sixteenth-note rock beat opens the drummer up the mountains of possibilities available for creating different types of rock,…

The rock shuffle is a triplet-based rock beat that introduces the drummer to the ‘swing’ feel.

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This lesson shows you a few ways to add interest to your rock shuffle grooves with some snare drum and bass drum variations.

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This lesson introduces the basic feel behind rock and pop drumming. Also a great coordination exercise, this beat is often…

This lesson shows you various rock/funk beats that require you to open and close your hi-hats. You’ll see a few very important technical tips for…

The jazz cymbal beat is the rhythmic foundation of jazz and swing drumming. After learning this short, simple beat, you are on the way to…

In this lesson we go through a few variations on the Jazz Cymbal Beat that will give some ideas on how to make your jazz/swing…

This lesson shows you how to combine exercises from the jazz coordination master list to create musical phrases and ideas.

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This lesson give you a list of exercises that allow to start incorporating bass drum and snare drum rhythms into your jazz cymbal beats.

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The half time shuffle is a groove made infamous by studio legends such at Jeff Porcaro, Bernard “Pretty” Purdie and Steve Gadd. Learning it helps…

This lesson shows you some interesting variations to completely change the feel of your half time shuffle grooves. Make sure you check out Steely Dan’s…

This lesson was great fun to create! James Brown’s ‘Funky Drummer’ is perhaps one of the best funk recordings ever made, no small thanks to…

In this video, Sacha plays a swing coordination exercise where the right hand plays a traditional cymbal beat while the other three limbs play a…

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The eighth note rock beat is the most commonly used drum beat in popular music today. After mastering this lesson,…

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This lesson shows you a set of simple bass drum variations to the eighth-note rock beat. Bass drum notes may…

This is essentially a video response to a YouTube video Sacha posted a few years back. Quite a few people wanted to know what was…

This lesson shows you how to begin to interpret the Brazilian Samba groove with brushes.

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Coming from Brazil, the samba is a unique rhythm that opens up some interesting possibilities on the drum kit.

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Bossa-Nova is a Brazilian groove that is often used as an alternative feel in rock and jazz. This lesson introduces the basic building blocks of…

This lesson gives you a few neat variations to try on with your basic bossa-nova feel.

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Songo is a rhythm that really put the drum kit on the map in Cuban music. This lesson shows you the different parts of the…

The Clave is the fundamental groove behind Afro-Cuban music and is important to understand when learning the rhythms behind many styles including Salsa, Mambo, Bolero,…