Beginner Drum Lesson - Standard 8th Note Groove

Drum Lesson on Standard 8th Note Groove​
No drum beat is more iconic or important to learn than the standard 8th note groove.

In fact, it provides the basic foundation for most of the music that we listen to.
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You’ll have heard it countless times in pop, rock, blues, metal and a variety of other musical styles.

In a standard bar of popular music, we have 4 beats in each measure of time in music. That’s why our first job as drummers is to count the band in when starting a song. We've all heard the drummer count the band in "Ready .... 1 ...2... 3 ...4"   That's because music is written in one and two bar phrases. 

On beats 1 and 3, you play the low-pitched bass drum. On beats 2 and 4, you play the high-pitched snare drum.

Keeping great time is your most important job as a drummer, and the bass and snare are the key instruments that will make you into a first-class timekeeper.

Great drummers move from bass to snare in the same way that a pendulum moves from side to side.

This creates a feeling of motion that encourages listeners to dance, rock out, and get lost in the music!

Don’t forget the hi-hats.

​The final part of this groove is the 8th notes which drummers typically play on the hi-hat cymbal.

You can think of these 8th notes as the essential glue that holds the groove together.
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Drummers play the hi-hat on all 4 beats as well as the spaces in-between.

So how does that work?
If you were to count the hi-hats out loud, you would count them as “1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and”. This gives you 8 notes in total, hence why this known as the standard 8th note groove.

Our drum instructors can teach you all the basics of becoming the drummer that you want to be. If you're interested in taking drum lessons on Zoom or In Person in Burbank, Glendale or North Hollywood, please contact us at (818)902-1233 or on our website at https://www.losangelesmusicteachers.com/online-music-lessons-burbank-ca.html​

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