What is Linear Drumming?

Linear Drumming: A drum pattern that consists of only one "voice" (meaning cymbals, drums, or any kind of sound) per strike. 

The most basic example is to take the basic beat and remove the hi-hats on the 1, 2, 3, and 4. (Figure 1) Many of you will recognize this beat as the generic "dance beat" or "techno beat".

So what's great about linear playing? If you had a chance to read the previous blog, you understand that incorporating more limbs disperses the energy making it much easier to play stronger and faster. This is assuming of course that we are playing one note at a time which just happens to be the definition of linear playing! So in a sense, linear playing is one of the most efficient ways you can play! Of course the most efficient way isn't always necessarily the sound you are looking for, but it's a good start.

Figure 2 displays some simple examples of linear grooves:

There are a couple important notes to make here:

1. There is always an accented snare on 2 and 4, or only 3.
2. The other snare hits are ghost notes.


By following these simple two rules, you will find all kinds of way to writes awesome grooves!

Here is an awesome demonstration of linear playing!

Modern Drum Lessons