Odd Time Drum Grooves (E-book)

Odd Time Drum Grooves
by Fred Bolder

74 pages in English

Most Western popular music is written in 4/4, but there is so much more. Time signatures like 5/4, 7/8, 9/4 and 15/8 may look difficult, but they are not. They can be challenging at first, but you just have to get used to it.

In this book I explain how you can play along with music with an odd time signature and how you can create your own odd time drum grooves and fills. There are many examples included, often with a link to hear it. I have seen many drum lessons about odd time signatures in which a 4/4 groove is converted and one or more beats are added or removed, but that way you will always end up with the same kind of grouping. It is very important to understand the grouping. Therefore I have developed a method to create grooves, that works for every odd time signature.

You'd think there wouldn't be a lot of music with an odd time signature, but you have to search in the right places. It is easy to find hundreds of Greek songs with an odd time signature. I also recommend listening to folk music from other Balkan countries, progressive rock and math rock.

In this book there are also a lot of music titles. Be sure to listen to the studio version (unless otherwise indicated) of the mentioned artist, as a song can be played differently by another artist or at a live performance.

Basic knowledge of music theory and reading sheet music is required for this book.