This lesson continues on from the Basic Linear Grooves lesson so if you are unfamiliar with the Linear style of drumming then please visit this lesson first.

We shall now be taking Linear drumming further by introducing other subdivisions and more syncopated rhythms played between the Hi-Hat and Bass drum. Hopefully these grooves are self explanatory so I shall just dive straight in with them now.

Eighth And Sixteenth Note Linear Grooves

All of the ideas in this lesson will be focusing on syncopated rhythms between the Hi-Hat and Bass drum. Future lessons will be looking at involving the Snare drum more in the creation of the beats.

The grooves in this lesson have a Snare backbeat on Beats 2 and 4 of the bar for ease of learning, no other Snare notes have been used. This means that no matter how complicated/busy the Hi-Hat/Bass drum interaction gets the constant Snare backbeat helps to ground the groove and give the listener something to focus on (very important if you want people to dance to it!).

Linear Drum Beat 1

Linear Drum Beat 2

Linear Drum Beat 3

Linear Drum Beat 4

Linear Drum Beat 5

Linear Drum Beat 6

Linear Drum Beat 7

Linear Drum Beat 8

Linear Drum Beat 9

Linear Drum Beat 10

Linear Drum Beat 11

Linear Drum Beat 12

Linear Drum Beat 13

Linear Drum Beat 14

Linear Drum Beat 15

Linear Drum Beat 16

Linear Drum Beat 17

Linear Drum Beat 18

Linear Drum Beat 19

Linear Drum Beat 20

Linear Drum Beat 21

Sixteenth Note Linear Grooves

This final set of drum beats use only sixteenth notes. These can actually be a little easier to play because there’s no rhythm to navigate, only a constant flow of sixteenths. This means that you can focus purely on the interaction between the Hi-Hat/Bass and not worry about the counting.

If you’ve been playing for a while you might recognise some of these grooves as those used by drummers such as Steve Gadd and David Garibaldi. These two drummers are well worth checking out if you’re interested in taking your Linear drumming further!

Linear Drum Beat 22

Linear Drum Beat 23

Linear Drum Beat 24

Linear Drum Beat 25

Linear Drum Beat 26

Linear Drum Beat 27

Linear Drum Beat 28

Linear Drum Beat 29

Linear Drum Beat 30

Linear Drum Beat 31

Conclusion

The number of possible permutations are truly staggering and it was simply not possible to include them all. These are just some of my favourite ideas, feel free to mix them up and change notes around. You can also think about including accents and ghost notes to create more dynamic grooves.

These ideas can be transferred to the toms for even more permutations. Simply choose some notes within the bar and try orchestrating them around the drums, you’ll hopefully be surprised by just how different the beat can sound when trying this.

You can view a free video drum lesson teaching many more linear style drum beats by clicking here.

View a new related drum lesson teaching Gospel style linear triplet based drum licks, fills & chops by clicking here.