This lesson deals with adding 16th note variations on the snare drum to grooves.

In concept, this isn’t ridiculously difficult and is a logical step for any drummer wanting to expand their rock beats. Furthermore, the majority of drummers are already doing these grooves. For this reason, the approach is going to be slightly different. The way I use this concept in a real world situation is to keep the back beat and make all the ‘in between’ 16th notes as ghost notes (soft).

WHY??

Groove. If you think about it, the thing that makes the groove lock in is the back beat – 2 and 4. So unless you’re on a drum and bass gig, that’s all the music is really calling for (usually). By ghosting the 16ths notes, you support the groove by outlining the subdivision but it doesn’t get so busy that it takes away from the music. Think about some of those famous James Brown grooves – they’re totally cooking and quite busy but it’s not taking away from the fundamental back beat…. James Brown would have kicked asses anyway if it was anything else!

So, my suggestion is to grab the PDF and start practicing slowly and deliberately keeping the ghost notes soft. You’ll have to be careful when you get a ghost note directly after the back beat. This means going from an accent to very soft straight away. This can be a bit tricky at first.

Enjoy the vid.