The Cold Sweat Drum Beat
Learn the Cold Sweat Groove from a James Brown Classic
Here we are looking at the Cold Sweat groove by Clyde Stubblefield on the James Brown classic song. This groove epitomises funk with some of the key elements that define a funk groove.
It’s based on a regular 8 beat which is normal enough but it uses two techniques on the snare drum that place this drum groove squarely in the funk genre.
The first technique is the displaced snare drum. Part of the character of Cold Sweat is the displaced accent which is accentuated by the snare drum as well as the guitar. For us drummers it means that the second back beat, which would usually be on beat 4, is now on the 4&. So effectively it’s half a beat later.
The second aspect of the Cold sweat drum beat that makes it funky is the use of 16th note snare drums that fall between the hi-hats. These snare hits are ghost notes so rather than being a main back beat they add texture to the groove.
As a result of the displaced snare in bar one, the groove continues into a second bar and then that two bar phrase becomes the rhythmic basis for the whole track.
In this lesson we will break it down in stages and build it back up. Full sheet music is provided as well as the video explanations.
Watch the video below to hear how it sounds and then scroll down to click through and grab the lesson.
p.s. If you want to learn another Clyde Stubblefield groove on a James Brown track check out the Funky Drummer.
So if you want to get super funky and learn this groove (which you definitely should!) then click below to start.
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