00:00 Now, moving on to a funk groove.
00:03 Now, when I'm playing a funk groove, to me, the kick and snare are extremely important,
00:10 but for me, the hi-hat makes what the funk is funky about.
00:15 I'll show you what I mean.
00:16 So if I'm playing a really easy funk groove like this.
00:42 Now it's the relationship between the kick, snare, and the hi-hat.
00:46 Many times when I see drummers playing, they're just using the hi-hat for time, but the hi-hat
00:52 is really essential inside of that groove.
00:55 Now, you can approach playing the snare with ghost notes, or you could just do a straight
01:00 two and four, but I like doing the ghost notes mixing in with the hi-hat because it gives
01:06 it a very cool sound.
01:08 So I'm going to break this beat down and just show you the hi-hat first.
01:15 The accent is on one, which is the quarter note two, quarter note three, four.
01:36 Now, I will throw claps in the middle of that too.
01:52 So when I'm doing the claps, the claps now come on the two and the four.
01:56 Hold on.
02:17 That's one side of the funk.
02:31 Now, when I was coming up learning how to play, I got a call to play with Cameo, and
02:39 I learned something very important when I was playing with Cameo.
02:42 I never made it to the stage with them because the drummer, Reeford Griffin, was doing another
02:46 concert and he came back.
02:48 So they sent me home after three days, but I learned a lot.
02:52 And this is what I learned from Larry Blackman.
02:56 He plays very rude when he's playing funk.
03:00 So you take a song like "Single Life," the hi-hat that he's playing is just a rude kind
03:08 of sound.
03:10 He's not using the tip of the stick.
03:11 He's using the side of the stick to get that sound, and he's holding the hi-hats very tight.
03:16 Great sound.
03:36 I love that sound.
03:37 I also use that sound when I'm playing on the hip-hop record.
03:42 I like the way that sounds when it's coming across just holding down the groove.
03:47 So I'll just take the same thing.
04:09 Works really well.
04:10 Hard-hitting, great, fat sound.
04:12 So when everybody comes in, you're just sitting holding down the groove.
04:16 Works really well.
04:17 [music]
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