Composing Creative Drum Grooves

Hey folks! In this tutorial we're going to take a brief look at a few things I do when approaching drum composition. Oftentimes I may have a cool riff idea and I'm faced with the task of creating a drum beat that not only sounds decent, but also sounds creative.

While this lesson only shows a few things you can do, there are zillions of combinations of grooves and beats that you can come up with. The trick is just to think outside of the box. And hopefully these few ideas I give you might spark some creativity for you.

In addition to using standard rhythmic notes that "fall on the beats", I encourage you to try incorporating dotted notes. When used tastefully, dotted patterns can create a nice off-time rhythm while still complimenting the underlying groove.

The more you experiment with and create drum parts, the more you'll start to think rhythmically and the more natural it will come to you. Practice makes perfect. I recommend you practice creating drum beats along with the backing track I provide you on the next page, or you can of course create your own backing track using just guitar and bass.

Have fun!