What is the Bossa Nova Drum Beat?

Series Summary

The drum is the oldest known musical instrument in the history of man and its basic design has not changed in thousands of years. Far from today’s uses as a percussive foundation for pop music or for fueling marching band excitement, drumming has a more profound history as a method of communication, and the drum as an implement of religious symbolism.

The drum was perhaps first created from the primal idea of mimicking the human heartbeat, yet today its music has developed into a technical, complex arrangement of beats and grooves. Different sized drums and cymbals are arranged into kits, where a drummer can pick from a variety of sounds to lead or accompany a particular song. Kit sizes vary from the simple to the outrageous. Modern drummers, including the likes of Buddy Rich, Billy Cobham, Neal Peart, Dave Weckl, and Jimmy Chamberlain, have helped drummers develop their playing skills by inspiring new beat and rhythm patterns, new combinations of sound upon sound. The modern approach to drumming, then, is to try and master the fundamentals of beat and time signature, and then to create fresh, innovative patterns and fills for each song.

In this free instructional video series, learn how to play the drums, both as an absolute beginner, and as a drummer who is looking to improve their skills. Our expert, Kevin Grossman, will show you how to work on your Latin chops. Drum clinic lessons include how to play the clave, the ride cymbal, the bass or kick drum and how to combine each of these together or independently to be completely free to combine or eliminate certain sounds so you can be as creative as you like.

Video Transcript

"What I was just playing is called the Bossa Nova. In this series I'm going to talk to you about playing the Bossa Nova, it's one of the basic Latin groove there is. The thing about when you say Latin is that so much Latin music out there that doesn't really mean anything. But you have to break it down so this is going to be the Bossa Nova I'm going to show you. There is all different elements that come up. What I was playing on the rim that was called the clave and I was keeping time on the high hat. The other thing about Latin music is that it was not originally made for drum set because there was a lot of percussion. So what you are doing is when you are playing the high hat, you are substituting it for the shaker, for the clave and you're playing the bass drum that would be like a lower drum, like a conga or some other big load drum. So check it out in this series I'm going to show you how to play the Bossa Nova."