Intro to Grooves Instructions

by Stockton Helbing

Step 1: The Basic Components

Learn to play each of the twelve Grooves with each of the three Hi-Hat Variations. Start at the
lowest marked tempo of 60bpm and repeat each Groove and Hi-Hat combination until
consistent time and sound is achieved between them. This is also an opportunity to address the
specific techniques used for contemporary drum set playing. These may include:
Snare Drum – all snare drum hits in the grooves should be played as forte (loud) rim
shots with the stick tip striking in the center of the snare drum while the shoulder of the
stick simultaneously contacts the rim of the snare drum. Pay close attention to the
motion of the arm that is playing the rim shot to ensure it is an ergonomic motion that
1) does not cause injury and 2) aids in creating a consistent tone from the rim shot.
Bass Drum – all bass drum strokes should be played as forte (loud) strokes where the
bass drum beater strikes the drumhead and immediately returns to a resting position.
The bass drum beater should not be pushed, or “buried,” into the drumhead. The bass
drum foot resting position should consist of the weight of the leg and foot being
primarily placed in the heel of the foot, while the ball of the foot maintains contact with
the upper bass drum pedal and is gently supported by the tension of the pedal. For
strokes, the weight of the leg and foot transfers to the ball of the foot as the bass drum
pedal is depressed. (I like to tell people to use a “smashing a bug” technique to urge
them in the velocity of their motion.)
Hi-Hat – there are two articulations used for playing the hi-hat on this worksheet:
accented and unaccented notes.
Accented Notes – Accented notes should be played on the hi-hat with the
shoulder of the stick, just below the taper, on the edge of the hi-hat, with a
normal mezzo forte (medium loud) stroke. When moving the hi-hat pattern to a
ride cymbal, the accents may be played either on the bell of the cymbal with the
side of the stick, near the taper, or as a crash with the side of the stick striking
the edge of the ride cymbal (this approach also works well on a crash cymbal).
Unaccented Notes – Unaccented notes should be played on the middle of the hi-
hat, halfway between the center and the edge of the cymbal, with a mezzo piano
(medium soft) stroke. When moving the hi-hat pattern to a ride cymbal, the
unaccented notes may be played on the middle of the cymbal, halfway between
the center and the edge of the cymbal, with the tip of the stick.

Intro to Grooves Instructions – by Stockton Helbing © 2024 Stockton Helbing Music – page 1
Hi-hat variations B and C will require the combination of both techniques. It is important to be
aware of the hand and arm movements and positions while playing both techniques. The
totality of the arm should be involved, with gentle, relaxed motion in the shoulder and elbow
(make sure the elbows are not “chicken winging,” or flaring out, during the strokes) and a
gentle breaking of the wrist (a hand waiving motion). Common mistakes are that players
position their hi-hat playing hand where the thumb is primarily on top, rather than a position
where the thumb and first knuckle are evenly parallel on the top of the playing hand. This
proper position allows the wrist to hinge freely, consistently, and safely, while producing a
consistent time feel and sound.

Step 2: Playing Complete Grooves

Once you are comfortable playing Groove/Hi-Hat Variations separately, and repetitiously, start
moving from one groove to the next in varying phrase lengths. Four measure long phrases are a
good starting point. Then move on to eight measure phrases. Begin by alternating between two
adjacent grooves with the eventual goal of playing through all twelve grooves without stopping.
Work with one hi-hat variation with all twelve grooves before moving on to the next hi-hat
variation. Another good practicing approach is to play odd phrase lengths, such as five or seven
measure long phrases, to challenge yourself to always mentally keep track of what measure you
are on at any given time within the song form. If you are struggling with keeping your place in a
phrase, then try to speak the measure number on beat one of each measure playing.

Step 3: Creating Basic Drum Fills Using the Snare Drum

Once you can consistently play the previous steps, begin working on fills. For this step, play one
groove/hi-hat variation with a repetitive phrase length and play a fill on the last measure of the
phrase each time. The fill should be based on the melody of the groove – all bass drum and
snare drum notes – and played only on the snare drum with a natural sticking (alternating
playing notes between the right hand and left hand in a manor that feels comfortable to
you).These strokes may be normal forte strokes and may be played with or without a rimshot
articulation.
Once you are comfortable playing the drum fill on the snare drum at the end of set phrase
length, then add a forte crash cymbal note on beat one of the measure after the drum fill.
When you do so, you will need to omit the first hi-hat note due to playing the crash cymbal. At
faster tempi, you may omit the first two notes of the hi-hat variation. It is important to
maintain a fluid and relaxed motion when moving from the crash cymbal back to the groove to
ensure metronomic and dynamic integrity.

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Step 4: Creating Basic Drum Fills Using Snare Drum and Toms
Once you are comfortable maintaining excellence while playing a groove with a fill on the snare
drum only, then begin experimenting with moving the fill to different sound sources. Start by
using snare drum and one tom, then slowly add more sound sources. A common mistake is to
initially attempt to play every single drum on the drum set on every single fill. Try different
sound source assignments to aid in learning to seek out sounds that you want for creative
reasons rather than muscle memory (automatic reactions). Once you are comfortable with
snare drum and tom choices, bass drum and/or cymbals may be used for sound source choices.
Throughout this step, you are still using the melody of the groove for the base rhythmic
material.

Step 5: Creating More Intricate Drum Fills

To help make the fills sound more interesting, go back to playing the fills only on the snare
drum but play constant unaccented 16th notes while interpreting the melody as accents within
those 16th notes. Once that is comfortable, experiment with 1) moving all notes, unaccented
and accented 16ths to different sound sources or 2) moving just the accented notes to different
sound sources while keeping all unaccented notes on the snare drum.
All these approaches will inspire you to experiment with different stickings to make your
movements around the drums and cymbals more comfortable and consistent. Natural sticking
is a good starting point, but it is then up to you to find out what works best for your setup, body
type, and desired sound.

Step 6: Putting it All Together

Combine all drum fill approaches. Then you may add improvisational material to your fills. It is
important to keep in mind that the drum fills serve a musical purpose of reinforcing the song
form and helping lead the other musicians in the band to the next musical section of the song.
The drum fills are not necessarily drum solos, although they can be a solo occasionally.
Step 7: The Next Step
With all previous steps under control, you are ready to combine all these approaches with the
Song Forms. The song forms are designed to slowly acclimate you to the ways you will handle
grooves and drum fills in a real-world music situation.

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SONG FORMS

Song Forms 1 and 2: These two song forms consist of only a Verse phrase and Chorus phrase.
For a first step, play the same groove for both the verse and chorus and select a different hi-hat
variation each for the verse and chorus. This is the first step in subtly learning to differentiating
parts of a song with different hi-hat patterns. Then experiment with different sound sources 1)
on the snare drum, i.e. side stick for the verse and rim shot for the chorus and 2) on the hi-hat
pattern by moving sound sources, i.e. moving from the closed hi-hat for the verse to the ride
cymbal for the chorus (when moving the hi-hat part to a different sound source, you may, or
may not, want to chance which hi-hat variation pattern they are using. It is a good thing to
consider and experiment with.).
For the second step, play a different groove for each the verse and the chorus. It is helpful to
start by using adjacent grooves from the worksheet, i.e. groove 1 for the verse and groove #2
for the chorus. This is a good opportunity to consider the way in which the bass drum of the
drum set musically works in conjunction with the bass player’s bassline and how those
elements are compositional parts of the song that should be consistent for the entirety of the
song – verse to verse, chorus to chorus, etc. After you are comfortable transitioning from one
verse groove, to a different chorus groove, and then back to the original verse groove, etc., you
may start to use all the sound source options from the first step.
The third step is to incorporate fills at the end of each musical phrase. If it is a struggle at first,
start with the first fill step, melody of groove on the snare drum, and work your way up from
there at a pace that allows you to be fully in control of every musical decision and execution of
your decisions with musical, dynamic, and metronomic excellence. It is important to be aware
that in popular forms of music, the drum fills are also part of the composition and need to be
played consistently throughout a song, i.e. the fill played from verse one to chorus one and the
fill played from verse three to chorus three should be nearly identical in rhythm and sound
source choices (in most cases). Once you have a grasp of this approach, slowly add more
improvisational content and/or embellishments. It is vital to go listen to some of your personal
favorite popular music and examine how the drummer, or in many cases the programmed
drums, handle all of this groove and fill content.
Song Form 3: This song form introduces the Pre-Chorus and lets you experiment with the ways
they should handle it. It is helpful to initially keep the groove the same for the verse and chorus
and either 1) change the hi-hat variation for the pre-chorus and or 2) change the sound source
for the hi-hat variation for the pre-chorus. This is a great opportunity to consider hi-hat sound
manipulation with the left foot. You may use a “trashy,” or half-open, hi-hat sound for the pre-
chorus. When playing a trashy hi-hat sound, make sure you keep the weight of your foot in the
heel while allowing the hi-hat cymbals to gently part, yet maintain gentle contact, between the
top and bottom cymbals (roughly a quarter of an inch gap.). As you gain confidence and

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control, experiment with crescendoing the trashy hi-hat throughout the pre-chorus by both
slowly striking the hi-hat with more velocity as the phrase progresses and increasing the gap
between top and bottom hi-hat as the phrase progresses.

In closing
All of this is to help prepare you for the joys of making music with other musicians. Look for any
and all opportunities to use these ideas with others. It is also extremely important to listen to
music that you like and examine how the drummer deals with the concepts in this work sheet.
Try to emulate exactly what you hear them doing, and then try some of your own ideas. We
learn from making mistakes and playing along with recordings is a safe and healthy way to fail
big and fail often. Most importantly, have fun!

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