Tag: drum beats exercises

10 Latin American Drum Grooves – Guest Post by Paulo Goncalves – Do Re Mi Studios

Welcome to the first ever guest post on learndrumsforfree.com!

The author of this post is Paulo Goncalves from Do Re Mi Studios in Australia. It is also his first ever guest post. The idea came about following this article that linked to learndrumsforfree at the end: ‘Five Drum Grooves Every Drummer Must Know’.

The guest post offers a lesson on Latin American drumming, which I don’t usually post about so I hope this will be useful and interesting to my readers.

Please also find attached a free PDF version of the post, which you may print out.

THE CHA-CHA

Originally from Cuba, the Cha-Cha typically features the beat on the hi-hat with the left hand playing on the snare drum. In addition, the right hand plays on the small tom-tom on the fourth beat.

Groove 1

In Latin American grooves, it is common to play the ‘rim’ of the snare drum instead of the skin. One way to notate a rim shot on a music score is shown below:

Play groove 2 using the rim shot technique on the snare drum.

Groove 2

Latin American grooves often also use the hi-hat closing with the left foot. This is indicated in a music score as shown below:

Play grooves 3 and 4 with the hi-hat closing with the left foot on each beat of the bar. The right hand plays the ride cymbal throughout the rhythm.

Groove 3

Groove 4

THE MAMBO

In a typical mambo groove, the ride cymbal pattern is broken up around the tom-toms and snare drum. The hi-hat closes on the second and fourth beats.

Groove 5

Groove 6

ROCK AND ROLL MAMBO

In grooves 7 and 8, the hi-hat also closes on the second and fourth beats. The cymbal pattern is played on the ride cymbal with the right hand.

Groove 7

Groove 8

THE SAMBA

Originally from Brazil, Samba grooves are played fairly fast. In the groove below, play the tom-tom notes with the right hand.

Groove 9

THE BOSSA NOVA

Like the Samba, the Bossa Nova is also originally from Brazil. Bossa Nova grooves feature the snare and bass drum playing syncopated rhythms.

Groove 10

Written by Paulo Goncalves. For more of his articles check out http://www.doremistudios.com.au/blog/

8 Basic Drum Beats for Beginners

All of these drum beats have featured in hit songs over the years, and they probably have all featured in rock and pop music in every single decade since the styles started.

Drum Teachers can print this out for their new beginner students – it’s a good way of introducing people to reading and learning how to play the most popular drum beats.

The handwritten version is available to make it easier for beginners to start reading drum music, as it’s laid out in a similar way.

There are 8 popular beats with 4 extra variations of the right hand, making it 40 drum beats to learn from one sheet.

Related (Premium): You can find more exercise sheets like this in the premium drum ebook Beats and Fills Drum Book – Basic Beginners

6 Skip Beat Drum Grooves With 8th Note Hi Hats

If you are new to these kind of drum beats, check out some of the easier looking sheets on the skip beats page.

This is a great drum sheet for drum students that enjoy playing basic bass drum and snare drum skip beats and want to progress with them further. These drum grooves explore some of the creative concepts that can be applied to these kind of drum beats.

There is plenty of syncopation and dynamic texture in the drum beats, so they are interesting to listen to and play. A good bass player would enjoy locking in with these types of funk drum grooves.

You could of course use these in different styles, such as fusion or rock. Drum & Bass would use these types of beats, played really fast.