Abakwa Drum Rhythm Lesson
Use the Abakwa Drum Rhythm in many different ways
The Abakwa drum rhythm is a really fun polyrhythmic pattern that is often found within the Afro Cuban six eight rhythms today. It derives from the secret Abakuá society found in Cuba, with roots in Western African culture, where they use their own language and music.
This Abakwa drum rhythm takes the influence of rhythms within this music and it’s evolution through Cuban music arriving at something on the drumkit that is a real independence challenge. So be warned, this rhythm is hard. But it is really fun, sounds cool and gives us lots of creative options when improvising or coming up with new groove ideas for songs. So it is well wroth spending time on.
As we are feeling this over six eight, we have six eighth notes in a bar. The core feature of this rhythm is the four note grouping which consists of three notes being played and then one rest. For this four note grouping to resolve over a six note bar it takes two bars to reach a common denominator of both four and six (twelve beats).
Once we have this concept down we can move on to playing rhythms with the other limbs that create that challenging but exciting polyrhythmic feel.
But this is far easier to explain with demonstrations so watch the video below to get a feel for the pattern and then scroll down to gain access to the lesson.
Although there is a practice loop to accompany this lesson, you might also like the full blown Afro Cuban Drumless Playalong to really get stuck into this style.
So if you fancy learning this awesome but pretty tricky beat let’s jump in. Click the button below to get cracking.
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