This is a summary of something I’ve been doing with a few of my students, adding some moves to the basic cut time funk grooves, which we get by reading Syncopation, pp. 34-37— book rhythm is the bass drum, catch the snare drum on 3, quarter notes on the cymbal.
As a teaching thing, it has been interesting. The students are adult beginners, with me for about a year, and doing these small changes to the grooves moves them into a zone where they’re virtually improvising, making a lot of good mistakes. I’ll be listening to them play this for a full minute or two, non-repetitively, while they work it out, getting fairly distant from the original pattern, and able to bring it back to it. Time always right there, few hesitations. I like my methods.
The moves/changes are:
- Left hand catches crash cymbal on & of 1 / & of 4, if there’s a bass drum note present.
- Cymbal rhythm becomes 1&2 or 3&4, on the syncopated part of the measure. Or the whole measure.
- Fill in spaces on the snare drum.
- Right hand moves to floor tom 3— and/or on another beat where there’s no bass drum.
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