Afro Cuban Drum Lesson

Learn the key Afro Cuban drum beats

This Afro Cuban drum lesson is an entry point into the exciting world of Afro Cuban six eight grooves. Here we will learn traditional Afro Cuban rhythm style adapted for the drumkit, as well as a couple of rock variations so that you can apply this to any style of music. We’ll even throw in a double paradiddle funky option as well!

The thing with learning these different styles is that you don’t have to play in that style to use them. Sometimes people dismiss it because they might play heavy metal in a Slipknot style band for example. The problem I see a lot is that this person might just listen to Joey Jordison for inspiration. Well sure Joey is great but if you just listen to him you will be a bad copy of Joey Jordison. Because no one in the world can be as good at being Joey Jordison as Joey Jordison is. Just like no one can be as good at being you as you are.

So to create our own sound we should listen to and studying the widest range of music possible because that will then come out in our playing to create our unique sound. And in fact I have taught this pattern to a student before and they recognised the rhythm from a heavy metal track that they loved so they spotted an immediate metal application without me helping them get there.

So the point is, study these styles because they are awesome fun, study them because you are desperate to play in a Cuban band, or study them because they will enrich and add to your creative ideas so that you can sound more interesting and unique in any style that you play.

Rant over! So what have we got here?

Ok, so the Afro Cuban rhythm is often used to describe the Afro Cuban six eight pattern. So we are in six eight time signature which means six eighth notes in a bar. If you need help counting six eight then head to the What’s the difference between three four and six eight free drum lesson. But assuming you’re all good and know that it means there are sixth eighth notes in a bar, let’s carry on.

Your standard six eight rock beat will likely play six evenly spaced notes on the hi-hat or ride. Very steady, nice and easy. But just like most Cuban music, the Afro Cuban six eight pattern is built around a clave, which loosely means the rhythmic key to the song. In this case we are playing the Bembe clave which is a really fun pattern to learn. However, it is not a nice even straight pattern like you might be used to so this will take some work. Don’t expect to nail it within five minutes. But I can tell you that it is well worth the effort.

Once you have the bembe clave down then we can start to get creative. In this lesson we will learn a more traditional version applied to the drum kit, as well as a couple of rock versions to show you how useable this is in popular Western music such as rock, pop, funk, etc. Because of the ternary feel of this pattern it also works really well as a variation on a half time shuffle.

You will get full sheet music for all of the patterns and a bonus MP3 drumless Afro Cuban backing loop to jam along with. It’s quite slow so works well as a learning tool before you progress to the full Afro Cuban backing track and it allows you to start feeling these beats the way they should be felt.

If you want to delve further into this style you should also check out the Abakwa drum lesson which teaches a tasty polyrhythmic pattern that works within the Afro Cuban six eight groove and has roots in Africa again. It’s a great concept to understand in basic form but in that lesson we also build it up to an exciting drumset rhythm.

Anyway, enough chat. It’s time to start getting creative and learning what these beats sound like.

If you already know these rhythms and want to get creative with your Afro Cuban drum grooves then you might like to go straight to the Afro Cuban drumless playalong backing track. As well as the track minus drums, it also gives you sheet music to learn the structure easily.

But if you need an introduction to the patterns then watch the video below for a flavour and then scroll down for access to the Afro Cuban drum lesson.

If this sounds good and you want to learn it, just click on the button below to find out what is included in the lesson.