00:00Now, moving on to a funk groove.
00:03Now, when I'm playing a funk groove, to me, the kick and snare are extremely important,
00:10but for me, the hi-hat makes what the funk is funky about.
00:15And I'll show you what I mean.
00:16So, if I'm playing, like, a really easy funk groove, like this.
00:30Now, it's the relationship between the kick, snare, and the hi-hat.
00:46Many times when I see drummers playing, they're just using the hi-hat for time,
00:51but the hi-hat is really essential inside of that groove.
00:55Now, you can approach playing the snare with ghost notes, or you can just do a straight two and four.
01:03But I like doing the ghost notes mixing in with the hi-hat, because it gives it a very cool sound.
01:08So, I'm going to break this beat down and just show you the hi-hat first.
01:15The accent is on one, which is the quarter note two, quarter note three, four.
01:46Now, I will throw claps in the middle of that, too.
01:50So, when I'm doing the claps, the claps now come on the two and the four.
01:54So, hold on.
02:15That's one side of the funk.
02:30Now, when I was coming up, learning how to play, I got a call to play with Cameo.
02:38And I learned something very important when I was playing with Cameo.
02:42I never made it to the stage with them, because their drummer, Reefer Griffin, was doing another concert and he came back.
02:48So, they sent me home after three days, but I learned a lot.
02:52And this is what I learned from Larry Blackman.
02:56He plays very rude when he's playing funk.
03:00So, you take a song like Single Life.
03:04The hi-hat that he's playing is just a rude kind of sound.
03:10He's not using the tip of the stick. He's using the side of the stick to get that sound.
03:15And he's holding the hi-hats very tight.
03:36Great sound. I love that sound.
03:38I also use that sound when I'm playing on the hip-hop record.
03:42I like the way that sounds when it's coming across, just holding down the groove.
03:48So, I'll just take the same thing.
04:09Works really well. Hard-hitting, great, fat sound.
04:13When everybody comes in, you're just sitting holding down the groove. Works really well.
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