Lesson 33 Groove
This groove's hand pattern is based off the ubiquitous lesson #33 from George Lawrence Stone's book, Stick Control.
If you’ve taken drum lessons for even a short period of time, chances are you’ve heard of the book Stick Control. Many drummers and teachers site this book as a must for every drummer’s library.
However, lesson #33 from the book has been raised on a pedestal, standing out as arguably the most popular exercise from any drum book ever published. Perhaps this has something to do with its close resemblance to Clyde Stubblefield’s famous drum beat from Funky Drummer.
Lesson #33, as written in the book Stick Control is played on a single drum with the following sticking pattern:
R L R R L R R L R L R R L R R L …
If you move the right stick to a hi-hat (or another cymbal) while keeping the left stick strokes on the snare drum, it creates the slick, Funky Drummer-esque groove.
The feature beat above does exactly this. We’ve chosen a bass drum pattern with an open hi-hat at the end of the second bar, but there are a lot of possibilities with this hand pattern. Experiment by adding your own bass drum placements to this hand pattern. Have fun, and if you come up with something cool, share it with us!
Enjoy a free lesson exploring more options with Lesson 33: Watch Free Drum Lesson
Author
Publisher of OnlineDrummer.com, Alfred Publishing author, Ddrum artist, and veteran Drum! Magazine contributor, Nate earned his Bachelor of Arts in Education at John Carroll University and Master of Arts in Education at the University of Findlay.
