Sixteenth-Note Kick Grooves
Posted in Beats, Grooves & Patterns, Intermediate Lessons
This lesson shows you a set of bass drum variations for your rock & funk beats. This means that bass drum notes may fall on…
Category: Beats, Grooves & Patterns
Lessons on how to play various drum beats, grooves and smaller patterns in different styles including jazz, rock, pop, funk, latin, salsa, afro-cuban, brazilian & more.
Sixteenth-Note Kick & Snare Grooves
Posted in Beats, Grooves & Patterns, Intermediate Lessons
This lesson shows you a set of combined bass drum and snare drum variations for your rock & funk beats. This means that bass drum…
Swinging Latin Grooves
Posted in Beats, Grooves & Patterns, Intermediate Lessons
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…
Drum Fills For 4/4 Rock & Funk
Posted in Beats, Grooves & Patterns, Intermediate Lessons
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…
Twelve Eight Rock Beat
Posted in Beats, Grooves & Patterns, Beginner Lessons
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…
Twelve Eight Rock Beat Variations
Posted in Beats, Grooves & Patterns, Beginner Lessons
This lesson gives you some simple ideas to add flavor to your Twelve-Eight rock beats.
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PDF Worksheet Sample:
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Swing – Advanced Snare & Kick Combinations
Posted in Advanced Lessons, Beats, Grooves & Patterns
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’s 32nd-Note Groove
Posted in Advanced Lessons, Beats, Grooves & Patterns
*View The Updated Lesson Here*
Steve Gadd invented some killer grooves over the years and this is one of my favourites. It’s incredibly simple but…
Sixteenth-Note Rock Beat
Posted in Beats, Grooves & Patterns, Beginner Lessons
*View The Updated Lesson Here*
Learning the sixteenth-note rock beat opens the drummer up the mountains of possibilities available for creating different types of rock,…
Rock Shuffle
Posted in Beats, Grooves & Patterns, Beginner Lessons
The rock shuffle is a triplet-based rock beat that introduces the drummer to the ‘swing’ feel.
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Rock Shuffle Beats
Posted in Beats, Grooves & Patterns, Intermediate Lessons
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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Quarter-Note Rock Beat
Posted in Beats, Grooves & Patterns, Beginner Lessons
*View The Updated Lesson Here*
This lesson introduces the basic feel behind rock and pop drumming. Also a great coordination exercise, this beat is often…
Open Hi-Hat Beats
Posted in Beats, Grooves & Patterns, Beginner Lessons
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…
Jazz Cymbal Beat
Posted in Beats, Grooves & Patterns, Beginner Lessons
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…
Jazz Cymbal Beat Variations
Posted in Beats, Grooves & Patterns, Intermediate Lessons
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…
Jazz Coordination One Beat Combinations
Posted in Beats, Grooves & Patterns, Intermediate Lessons
This lesson shows you how to combine exercises from the jazz coordination master list to create musical phrases and ideas.
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PDF Worksheet Sample:
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Jazz Coordination Master List
Posted in Beats, Grooves & Patterns, Intermediate Lessons
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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PDF Worksheet…
Half-Time Shuffle
Posted in Beats, Grooves & Patterns, Intermediate Lessons
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…
Half-Time Shuffle Variations
Posted in Beats, Grooves & Patterns, Intermediate Lessons
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…
Funky Drummer Beat
Posted in Beats, Grooves & Patterns, Intermediate Lessons
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…
Funk Over Swing Polyrhythm
Posted in Advanced Lessons, Beats, Grooves & Patterns
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…
Eighth-Note Rock Beat
Posted in Beats, Grooves & Patterns, Beginner Lessons
*View The Updated Lesson Here*
The eighth note rock beat is the most commonly used drum beat in popular music today. After mastering this lesson,…
Eighth-Note Kick Drum Beats
Posted in Beats, Grooves & Patterns, Beginner Lessons
*View The Updated Lesson Here*
This lesson shows you a set of simple bass drum variations to the eighth-note rock beat. Bass drum notes may…
Cowbell Funk
Posted in Advanced Lessons, Beats, Grooves & Patterns
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…
Brazilian – Samba With Brushes
Posted in Beats, Grooves & Patterns, Intermediate Lessons
This lesson shows you how to begin to interpret the Brazilian Samba groove with brushes.
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Brazilian – Samba Basics
Posted in Beats, Grooves & Patterns, Intermediate Lessons
Coming from Brazil, the samba is a unique rhythm that opens up some interesting possibilities on the drum kit.
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Brazilian – Bossa-Nova
Posted in Beats, Grooves & Patterns, Intermediate Lessons
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…
Brazilian – Bossa-Nova Variations
Posted in Beats, Grooves & Patterns, Intermediate Lessons
This lesson gives you a few neat variations to try on with your basic bossa-nova feel.
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PDF Worksheet Sample:
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Afro Cuban – Songo
Posted in Beats, Grooves & Patterns, Intermediate Lessons
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…
Afro Cuban – The Clave
Posted in Beats, Grooves & Patterns, Intermediate Lessons
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,…
