Terminology

[Matthijs Ament]

Hi All, within the drumming community there are often different terms for the same manifestations. Like, a "fill'' is often called "break" in the Netherlands. Since I am also teaching, I like to get everything I tell students to be as accurate as possible. As a conceptional explanation for 'groove' I refer to it as "A groove is a rhythmic whole that makes you want to move." That is in the African sense, where many drums are played at the same time, playing different rhythmical patterns that connect really well with one another, building a pretty complex music. Since most Pop music drumming is on average more basic but played with as much pocket as possible, the energy has to come from a rhythm made up of kick & snare, and a ride pattern (hihat) on top of that. (except of course when playing linear grooves or polyrhythms). How would you call the rhythm/pattern played with the kick & snare? You know, the part of the groove you could actually sing, the main accents of the groove so to speak. I think most people in Europe would refer to it as 'the beat' But in the US, the beat is very much the way one counts the pulse. AI, 'we start at beat 3'. Cheers, Matthijs

[Rodge]

We do the same mistakes here in France, indeed doing a fill is the correct word what we call doing a break.
A break is, a break...
Like a stop I think, fellas ?

In France we say stop chorus, but I believe that the correct word is a break.

[Paul Marangoni]

How would you call the rhythm/pattern played with the kick & snare? You know, the part of the groove you could actually sing, the main accents of the groove so to speak.

I think "pattern" or "beat" are common, but then again, so is "groove".

[Matthijs Ament]

Thanks Rodge and Paul. Here is another one: Grace Note

When playing a flam, one uses the primary note, and in front of it a note is played without rhythmical value. I call this a grace note, a note without rhythmical value. Would that be correct?