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Monday, June 12, 2023

Groove o' the day: Greg Errico - If I'm In Luck I Might Get Picked Up

By request here's a groove by played by Greg Errico on If I'm In Luck I Might Get Picked Up by Betty Davis (née Mabry) on her self-titled album. Which was also produced by Greg Errico. It's one of the funkier things ever. 

This is the first four measures of the track— by the third measure he settles on the main groove he'll be repeating throughout this section of the song. 


People try to groove like this by hitting the drums harder, and it doesn't work, it just sounds harsh. He's not playing loud, but he's getting a deep sound, a great sound out of the snare drum. 

Hihats are played all with the right hand, accenting on the 8th notes. There's some interesting texture happening on the snare drum with the ghost notes, including a 32nd note triplet at the end of the measure. 

On the recording you can hear what sounds like concert toms occasionally— they conflict with the ghost notes on the snare drum, so they're either played by somebody else, or they're overdubbed, or another instrument is doing something that reads like concert toms to my ear. I wrote that out so you can emulate that if you want.  

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