While playing the drums is an expressive activity that ultimately allows for creative freedom, you’ll have to learn some of the common vocabulary if you ever want to play along with your favorite songs or jam with other musicians. Thankfully, a little knowledge can go a long way when it comes to learning drum grooves of different styles.

Every kind of music is characterized by different traits. By learning what really differentiates various styles of drumming from one another, you’ll be able to build upon basic patterns and rhythms in a way that appropriately suits the music. Developing an understanding of numerous styles will make you a much more well-rounded drummer, and will greatly help with improvising.

1) Rock groove

The feel of rock drumming is primarily driven by the bass drum (kick) and snare drum. The kick typically plays on the downbeats (counts 1 and 3), while the snare plays the backbeats (counts 2 and 4). The cymbal pattern can embellish or alter the feel, but it isn’t a driving factor. Basic rock grooves typically have a steady 8th note rhythm played on the hihats. The kick and snare should be louder than the hihats since they really dictate the overall feel. If the hihats are too loud, the whole groove feels kind of weak and puny.

Even though rock grooves are the first stop on our journey, rock drumming evolved out of swing drumming (which will be covered a bit later). In swing drumming, the drummer typically steps on the hihat pedal on the backbeats (remember, counts 2 and 4). As amplifiers began making their way onto the bandstand throughout the 1930s and 40s, drummers had to compete with much louder instruments. Moving the backbeats to the snare drum allowed them to cut through the rest of the band much more effectively.

When you feel comfortable with the basic beat, start adding some more kicks to the groove to build upon the basic pattern. Simply playing another 8th note on the bass drum, or shifting and existing stroke, is enough to change the feel slightly. Below are a few variations stemming from the original beat. Check out ACDC’s “Back in Black” or Weezer’s “Say It Ain’t So” to hear a couple of these examples used in context.

2) Dance beat

The most common dance groove is kind of derived from a rock feel and fueled the Disco movement throughout the 1970s. In modern dance music, the steady thump of the bass drum directly on each beat is mandatory! We’ll still play the snare drum on beats 2 and 4, but the hihats will only play on every 8th note upbeat (the ‘&’ of each beat). The seesawing between the deep, punchy kick and the higher pitch of the hihats is what makes people want to dance. Add an occasional 16th embellishment on the snare or an additional 8th note on the bass drum to provide a little extra motion to the groove without interfering with the feel. Most dance grooves like this are played around 110-130 bpm (beats per minute). Check out Sylvester’s “Dance” or “And the Beat Goes On” by The Whispers to hear some classic dance grooves in action.

3) Funk groove

Funk arose as a new style of dance music in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Combining elements of soul and R&B, funk music relied heavily on repetitive, and often syncopated, drum grooves that were tightly intertwined with the bass guitar parts. Some of the most iconic funk grooves, like the groove from James Brown’s “Cold Sweat” or Herbie Hancock’s “Chameleon,” feature a displaced backbeat, where the snare drum just misses either count 2 or 4. In the groove below, the hihats are playing steady 8th notes with accents on each beat. But the thing that really stands out is the snare hit on the ‘a’ of beat 3. It lands a single 16th note before where we’d expect it to in a rock or dance beat, creating a tasty little jolt in the groove.

4) 6 / 8 Blues rock

While lots of grooves can be built up around 8th notes on the hihats in 4/4, dividing the space between downbeats and backbeats differently can give us access to different styles. In this case, we’ll play a 6-beat pattern. The hihats will play on every beat, the kick will play only on beat 1 (to start), and the snare will play on beat 4. This 6/8 groove is much more characteristic of blues rock, which is a common style of choice for jam sessions. Just like with the basic rock groove, you can work in additional kicks and even break up the hihat pattern a bit to further embellish the feel. To hear a couple examples, check out Childish Gambino’s “Me and Your Momma” or Led Zeppelin’s “Dazed and Confused.”

While these grooves are characteristic of blues fused with rock music, it’s important to be aware of the origins and cultural significance of blues music itself. Blues originated shortly after the US Civil War in the deep south. Named after feeling melancholy (referred to as the “blues”), early blues stemmed from work songs and hymns that were sung by slaves laboring on Southern plantations. Blues often behaved as a sort of narrative, frequently describing racial discrimination and other hardships faced by the African American community. Many songs make use of a call-and-response device to provide a form, which can be expressed as AAB. The ‘A’ is an initial statement, which is then restated, and then responded to with an alternate ‘B’ statement. This call-and-response form is supported by a specific chord progression, which became the foundation for a huge amount of popular music in the decades that followed. To hear an earlier example of southern blues, check out Robert Johnson’s “Cross Road Blues.” For a different flavor of the blues, listen to “Hoochie Coochie Man” by Muddy Waters, which is an example of Chicago blues.

5) Swing

The 4 feels covered up until this point are primarily driven by the kick and snare, but swing drumming takes an almost opposite approach. In swing, the feel is driven by the ride cymbal and hihats, while the kick and snare take on much more of a supporting role. Swing is the go-to style for jazz drumming since it relies heavily on improvisation and timbre, as opposed to consistently repeating patterns. However, time is felt a bit differently compared to straight ahead rock.

In rock and most pop music, 8th notes entail splitting beats into 2 equal parts. In a swing feel, the 8th notes have a lilt to them. The first 8th note in a beat is longer than the second. Swung 8th notes are often expressed as the first and last triplets of a beat. The universal basic swing pattern consists of playing on every beat on the ride cymbal plus “skip strokes” on the last triplets of beats 2 and 4. Additionally, step down on the hihat pedal on beats 2 and 4, which should create a short “chick” sound. The kick and snare can play sparse rhythms at a quieter volume, known as “comping” (short for “accompanying”). It’s important that they don’t overpower the cymbals! Drummers proficient in swing drumming can improvise rhythms on the kick and snare while maintaining the swing pattern on the cymbals.

Before the creation of the ride cymbal in the 1940s, drummers would primarily keep time on the hihats, or the snare drum by using press rolls (a technique known as “digging coal”). Drum sets at the time often featured a crash cymbal, which would be small and thin by today’s standards, but they were only used for accents. A drummer by the name of Kenny Clarke was tired of “digging coal” all the time and felt restricted by only keeping time on the snare drum and hihats. Instead, he began playing timekeeping patterns on the crash cymbal, which freed up his left hand to play other rhythms on the snare drum. Closing the hihats on the backbeats added more texture and pushed the boundaries of what people thought was possible on the drums. Clarke’s innovations added way more dimension to the drum set and completely reshaped how drummers approached the instrument. Soon after switching to keeping time on the crash, cymbal manufacturers began making larger, thicker cymbals (ride cymbals), allowing for clear stick definition and longer sustain.

From a more general viewpoint, swing and jazz take influence from ragtime, blues, and West African music. Jazz heavily relies on improvisation, which allows musicians to essentially converse amongst themselves and react to one another. The drums play a particularly interactive role in jazz music, often punctuating and responding to soloists. Check out Charlie Parker’s “Confirmation” (with Max Roach on drums) or Miles Davis’s “So What” (Jimmy Cobb on drums) for some exemplary swing drumming.

6) Halftime shuffle

The lilt of swing drumming can meet in the middle with the backbeats from rock drumming, creating the beloved shuffle. There are many different types of shuffles that each fit a particular context, but we’re going to focus on halftime shuffles. Halftime shuffles are very flexible grooves and are often used in rock, blues, hiphop, modern jazz, and more.

Just like with the swing pattern from before, everything will operate on the triplet rhythmic grid. The hihats will play on the first and last triplets of each beat, with a subtle accent on the beats. The “halftime” is brought about by the placement of the backbeat. Instead of hitting the snare directly on beats 2 and 4, the snare will land only on beat 3. To start, play the kick only on beat 1. For added embellishment, you can place a couple more kicks throughout the measure, and even add ghost notes to the middle triplets of the beats (a la Bernard Purdie’s “Purdie” shuffle). These kinds of grooves can be heard on Steely Dan’s “Home At Last” (Bernard Purdie on drums) and Led Zeppelin’s “Fool In the Rain.”

7) Bossa Nova

In addition to the more conventional grooves and styles detailed above, drummers should also be aware of some of the popular patterns used in different styles of music from other parts of the world. Brazilian styles of drumming in particular have gained wider traction due to their adaptability to various types of music.

Bossa nova, which roughly translates to “new trend,” was created during the late 1950s and early 1960s in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It’s a fusion of traditional Brazilian samba music (more on that in just a bit) and American jazz. Traditionally, the percussion parts are split among a percussion section, but all of the rhythms and patterns are adaptable to drum set. In this case, we’ll build up a basic bossa nova beat that is 2 measures long. Start with steady 8th notes on the hihats. The bass drum plays on beats 1 and 3, as well as the ‘&’ of beats 2 and 4.

The snare drum will play a clave pattern, which is a rhythmic phrase consisting of 5 pulses divided over 2 measures. We’ll use a 2-3 clave, where 2 hits on the snare occur during the first measure, and the remaining 3 hits occur in the second measure. Instead of playing on the head of the snare like in each previous groove, we need to make use of rim knocks to evoke a specific sound from the drum. In the first measure, play rim knocks on beat 2 and the ‘&’ of beat 3. In the second measure, rim knocks will land on beat 1, the ‘&’ of beat 2, and on beat 4. Put all together, the pattern of the rim knocks weaves between the rhythm of the bass drum. Bossa Nova is often characterized as being a form of lounge music and the dynamics should reflect that. Everything should feel sort of delicate and have a bit of a bounce to it. You can also keep time on the ride cymbal and step down on the hihat pedal on beats 2 and 4 to open up the feel a bit more.

One of the most influential bossa nova composers was a Brazilian musician named Antonio Carlos Jobim, commonly referred to as Tom Jobim. He helped elevate bossa nova to the global stage and worked with many jazz musicians to create a truly new, unique sound. Check out this live concert for a masterful demonstration from the father of bossa nova.

8) Samba

As briefly mentioned leading up to the bossa nova groove, Samba is a traditional form of Brazilian music. There are many different styles of Samba that originate from different regions of the country and use different instrumentation (Batucada is an exceptionally drum-heavy style). As it pertains to the drum set, Samba is typically applied as a mixture with jazz music. Samba drumming makes use of many of the same rhythms as bossa nova (although it’s really bossa making use of Samba patterns…), but the patterns are often played faster and with greater intensity compared to the lax vibe of bossa nova music.

Instead of steady 8th notes on a cymbal, we’ll play the first 3 16th notes of every beat on the ride cymbal. Step on the hihat pedal on the ‘&’ of each beat. Play the bass drum on the first and last 16th notes of each beat. Ultimately, the rhythm of the snare drum will vary. But to lay down something that fits with the feel, we’ll use a mixture of strokes that start by landing on 8th note partials, but displace to the 16th note upbeats (the ‘e’ and ‘a’ of beats). Quite a few tunes by Chick Corea and Return to Forever, such as “Captain Marvel”, make use of samba elements in jazz music.

9) Reggae

Originating in Jamaica, reggae grooves have a very unique feel to them compared to the others covered so far. They’re largely built around a concept known as the “one drop.” Popularized by Carlton Barrett’s drumming with Bob Marley, it has become an iconic feature of reggae music. In all of the other grooves, there’s typically a solid kick on beat 1 (with the exception of swing), which feels like a strong resolution. In reggae grooves, there’s almost NEVER a strong kick right on beat 1. Instead, the kick usually aligns with the backbeats on counts 2 and 4.

Below are two common reggae grooves, which are essentially the same as one another. The first groove uses steady 16th notes on the hihats, with an accent on the ‘&’ of each beat. Instead of playing on the center of the snare, we’ll use rim knocks on beats 2 and 4. The second measure behaves like a fill, even though only the rhythm of the snare changes. The second groove is the same as the first, but with a shuffle pattern (or swing feel) on the hihats instead of straight 16th notes. Beats like these are common among reggae tunes, such as “Three Little Birds” by Bob Marley and the Wailers.

10) Calypso

Originating in Trinidad and Tobago, calypso grooves have spread beyond their Caribbean roots. Like Samba and Bossa Nova, traditional calypso drumming is typically performed by a percussion section. But we can adapt those patterns to the drum set. While there are many variations of calypso rhythms and grooves, we’ll focus on a “soul calypso,” or “soca” groove. Nowadays, this groove is most often associated with reggaeton music (originating from Puerto Rico).

We’ll cover 2 variations of a soca groove. We’ll start with 8th notes on the hihats and quarter notes on the kick. Play the snare on the ‘a’ of beats 1 and 3, and the ‘&’ of beats 2 and 4. The second version has more happening on the hihats. Switch to playing the first 3 16th notes of each beat while opening the hihats on the ‘&’ of the beats. Both of your feet will essentially step on each beat. Check out the song “Abatina” by Calypso Rose to hear this kind of beat in action.

There are dozens of other types of music and styles of grooves, but these beats should equip you with the knowledge needed to enter any jam session with confidence. Spend time playing around with each of these grooves to work out other ways to develop upon them and leave your own personal imprint.

Want to learn even more grooves and how to put your own spin on them? Sign up for a trial drum lesson to take the next step! We can’t wait to help you develop into a passionate drummer at our Boston music school.

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10 Drum Grooves Every Drummer NEEDS to Know