Bembé “Afro-Cuban 6/8“ - Drum Groove

This is a common Bembé or “Afro-Cuban 6/8“ drum pattern. It’s presented using the clock or rhythm wheel method in order to facilitate the understanding of what is played by each limb. This is also very useful to understand what differents grooves have in common or not. You often find this rhythm written with an High Tom on pulse 5 & 6 which gives the rhythm a more “symmetrical“ sound. However i generaly prefer this version as it’s more asymmetric, less cluttered and often sounds cleaner and more syncopated with a band. I designed the Groove series to be a complementary approach to the traditional musical notation. It present some advantages to understand the structure of repetitive rhythms. The geometric shape of the rhythm is immediately visible and the properties are then easily recognized. My goal with this series was to create a learning tool where the musician can spend more time practicing the rhythm and less time trying to figure out what to play. To build this video series, i’m using After Effects for all the animations and Ableton Live to record, sequence and process the drum sounds. Drum Grooves Collection : If you want to learn more about the usefulness of that representation, there’s a great book by Godfried T. Toussaint called “The Geometry of Musical Rhythm“.