In today's article, we will talk about the groove and it's role in music. The groove (which is not a technical term, but rather how I choose to describe it), occupies a special role in a beat because it is a part that has a dual-function of helping establish the rhythmic foundation of a song as well as the harmonic foundation of the song at the same time. The other parts that we've covered already or that we will cover in future articles do one or the other of those functions but the groove does both.
All genres of music have the groove in some form but they use different instruments to play it. For example, in reggae music, the groove appears in the form of a piano and guitar accenting the upbeats in addition to an organ playing a "bubble" pattern. In techno, a techno pluck or stab is typically used to fill the role of the groove. In hip-hop, good examples of the groove are the dark strings in "No Hands" with Wakka Flocka, Wale, and Roscoe Dash or the piano part in "Still D.R.E" with Dr. Dre and Snoop.
Due to it's dual role of establishing both rhythm and harmony, the groove is often times a linking agent that helps both the rhythmic parts of the song and the harmonic parts work together. Often times, if you have a good sound leading part and a good sounding drum part but they aren't working together, the groove may be what is needed to bring the parts together.
One other important function of the groove is to provide motion in a track. Because of it's rhythmic nature, parts that play the role of the groove have a sense of motion that more sustained parts such as the pads, just don't have. Often times, when a track is pretty much fully built but it seems stagnant, the groove is the final part that is missing that will give a song life. Use this sense of motion to your advantage when arranging a track. Often times, you can start out a track without the groove and then add the groove in at a part such as the chorus or to help build out parts in the verse. This provides interesting dynamics to the song by taking it from no movement to movement and vice versa. Combine this by using smaller divisions of notes occurring in the hi-hat (i.e going from 8th to 16th notes), it can be a powerful effect to add energy and motion to your track.
Experiment with incorporating motion into your beats by adding the groove to your track. In the next segment, we'll discuss leads.
All genres of music have the groove in some form but they use different instruments to play it. For example, in reggae music, the groove appears in the form of a piano and guitar accenting the upbeats in addition to an organ playing a "bubble" pattern. In techno, a techno pluck or stab is typically used to fill the role of the groove. In hip-hop, good examples of the groove are the dark strings in "No Hands" with Wakka Flocka, Wale, and Roscoe Dash or the piano part in "Still D.R.E" with Dr. Dre and Snoop.
Due to it's dual role of establishing both rhythm and harmony, the groove is often times a linking agent that helps both the rhythmic parts of the song and the harmonic parts work together. Often times, if you have a good sound leading part and a good sounding drum part but they aren't working together, the groove may be what is needed to bring the parts together.
One other important function of the groove is to provide motion in a track. Because of it's rhythmic nature, parts that play the role of the groove have a sense of motion that more sustained parts such as the pads, just don't have. Often times, when a track is pretty much fully built but it seems stagnant, the groove is the final part that is missing that will give a song life. Use this sense of motion to your advantage when arranging a track. Often times, you can start out a track without the groove and then add the groove in at a part such as the chorus or to help build out parts in the verse. This provides interesting dynamics to the song by taking it from no movement to movement and vice versa. Combine this by using smaller divisions of notes occurring in the hi-hat (i.e going from 8th to 16th notes), it can be a powerful effect to add energy and motion to your track.
Experiment with incorporating motion into your beats by adding the groove to your track. In the next segment, we'll discuss leads.
About the Author:
A founding member of the Jam Sonic production team, Frank Lubsey composes beats for hip-hop artists, jingles for small businesses, and background music for film and tv. His love of music began at a young age and never went away. Be sure to check out his website for beatmaking articles and videos and hip-hop beats for sale.
