Bossa Nova Drum Beat Lesson

Learn the Brazilian Bossa Nova Drum Beat

The bossa nova drum beat is awesome, it’s fun, it’s an essential groove for any drummer, and it’s from Brazil! There are four great reasons to learn this pattern today.

Now I know you might say, “Hey, I’m a metal drummer, there’s is no way I will ever need a bossa nova drum beat.” Well I hear you but you’re wrong! Well you might not be, but in many cases this attitude is a bad one.

1. One day you might stop being a total metaller and decide you want to embrace many styles of music. At this point you might start picking up other gigs or recording sessions. Somewhere along that journey it is highly likely you will be called upon to play a bossa nova drum beat, or some variation based upon it. Unless you have studied the style and can play it to a good standard you will not be able to deliver.
2. If you study other styles outside of the one you listen to, you will provide yourself with new influences and a richer understanding of rhythm. This more informed approach means that new ideas that are unique to you will start to come out in your playing. What happens if you take a chilled out bossa nova drum beat and play it really hard on a heavy metal drum kit using a china crash instead of a hi-hat? I don’t know, it might be terrible. But the point is unless you have that depth of rhythmic understanding you can’t even try these ideas out. Study widely, learn everything you can and you WILL be a much better drummer with more creative ideas.

Ok, so now we can agree that it’s worth learning a bossa nova drum beat, let’s get to it. As mentioned, it originated in Brazil around the mid 20th century. It is very similar in many ways to the Brazilian Samba drum pattern. In fact they both share the same foot ostinato which really drive the rhythm. But bossa nova drum patterns are much more laid back than samba. Bossa Nova translates as the ‘new trend’ so this was a super laid back, cool twist on samba which took influence from North American jazz styles.

Traditionally this style would have used surdo, cabasa and clave type percussion instruments. All of these elements can easily be adapted for the drum kit so this has become a popular style for drum set players to copy.

So we copy the surdo part with the bass drum to create that low end ostinato. We then move the cabasa part to the hi-hat and finally we then add the bossa clave with our cross stick on the snare which is very similar to the famous Cuban Son Clave.

Watch the video below to get a feel for the pattern and if you like it click below to access the lesson.

Faster Hands in 7 Days FREE Drum Course

Improve your drum hand speed in a week to get Faster Hands

We all want faster hands on the drums but so many drummers I see are missing the basic aspects of drumming that will take them to the next level.

Many of those drummers are not lazy. In fact it's the opposite. They are putting in the work but they are missing the fundamental techniques that will allow them to play faster and smoother. This leads to inevitable frustration and despondency.

In effect they are wasting their time!

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But more than trying to create unrealistic miracles in a short space of time, it will also set up long term habits that will help you find your full potential as a drummer long into the future. And that is way more important.

It will show you:

1. The fundamental techniques to play at your best level
2. How to properly grip the sticks
3. How to prepare yourself properly to drum
4. How to make the stick do the work so you don't have to
5. How to set your drums up for optimum speed
6. How to apply this around the kit
7. Exercises to develop control as well as speed
8. How to take this on into the future to become awesome!

And more than that you will also get a ton of other great free drum resources to make you a better drummer such as playalong tracks, articles, exclusive video lessons and more. And it's all free!

Watch the video to get a feel for what the seven day course entails and then scroll down to get the course immediately.

Start today and build your hand speed up

So let's start the course today. Do it now and begin your 7 day process to get faster hands. This time next week you'll be enjoying the results and thinking about how you can take it to the next stage (by the way, the course helps with that too as we'll be checking speed progress over the next 12 months).

So click the big blue button below. Let's get started!