Monday, February 06, 2023

Funk samba: moving the 1

I was doing this with some students, using a similar groove to Omar Hakim's Predator groove— vastly simplified. There are a couple of pages of “funk samba” grooves in Roy Burns / Joey Farris's underrated book Studio Funk Drumming that are good.  

I don't know how much of a real legal samba this is, but it's a familiar type of groove, with alternating 16th notes on the hihat, and a displaced backbeat:



We made some two measure phrases out of that by moving the bass drum note on 1 of the second measure. It's one good way of developing some flexibility with a composed groove. Here's what's happening below: 

1. Anticipation— move BD to & of 4 of first measure. 

2. Anticipation— move to a of 4 of first measure.

3. Delayed— move to e of 1 of second measure. 

4. Delayed— move to & of 1 of second measure. 

5. Split the 1— & of 4, & of 1

6. Split the 1— a of 4, e of 1

7. Split— & of 4, e of 1

8. Split— a of 4, e of 1




You could do some similar variations in the middle of the measure to get some variety with the one-bar groove. We've also been adding open sounds, accents, and open rolls/drags to the hihat part, a la the Predator groove. I encourage you to pencil those in. 

Get the pdf

No comments: