Rock Grooves In Odd Times

Rock Grooves in Odd Times, by Joel Rothman, is a collection of odd time signature rock grooves for drumset.

Playing time behind a drum set, whether it’s for rock, jazz, latin, folk, or any other musical genre has to do mainly with the cymbals and snare. The bass drum is, of course, important but it’s secondary in the sense that you can still lay down a beat without a bass drum even though the integration of the bass drum together with the cymbals and snare helps to create a groove. Besides, the bass player along with the drummer is even more significant than a bass drum in creating a swinging and distinctive groove for the particular tune being played.

The following pages show hundreds of possible cymbal/snare rock grooves in various odd time signatures such as 5/4, 7/4, 5/8, 7/8, 11/8, 13/8, 17/16, 19/16, etc. No written bass drum part is given. It’s assumed the reader is well versed in playing eighth and sixteenth note bass kicks, and in each exercise you have the opportunity to be a partner in writing this book by drumming up bass patterns to go with each notated cymbal/snare groove. The fact is there are many various bass patterns that would suit each exercise, and if all were written out this book would be massive. Besides, originating your own bass drum patterns allows you to be creative – moreover, it’s fun.