FUNK FUNDAMENTALS
Modern Drummer is the world’s most widely read drum magazine, is dedicated entirely to the art of drumming and caters to the needs of amateur, semi-pro, and professional drummers.
African and American Combinations
The next step in our African-American journey is to combine the long-three polyrhythm in bikutsi with mangambe and shuffle-funk elements. Let’s begin by playing the mangambe right-hand pattern on the cymbal and the six over four polyrhythm with the foot…
Groove Concepts for Fusion-Funk Music
I began playing with the Carl Mayotte Fusion Quintet in 2018. We have recorded four albums since 2018 and have had the chance to release a play along series for drum and bass with Hudson Music in 2023. Creating the…
Exercises in African-American Funk: “Mangambe, Bikutsi, and the Shuffle”
In Modern Drummer’s ongoing introduction to Jonathan Joseph’s book Exercises in African American Funk: Mangambe, Bikutsi, and the Shuffle; This month we will continue with Jonathan’s explanation of a unique African groove called Bikutsi. Bikutsi is a musical genre from…
Exercises in African-American Funk “Mangambe” Part Two
In Modern Drummer’s ongoing introduction to Jonathan Joseph’s book Exercises in African American Funk: Mangambe, Bikutsi, and the Shuffle; This month we will continue with Jonathan’s explanation of a unique African groove, Mangambe. We will continue to explore some interesting…
Exercises in African-American Funk “Mangambe”
In our ongoing introduction to Jonathan Joseph’s book Exercises in African American Funk: Mangambe, Bikutsi, and the Shuffle published by Modern Drummer we will include Jonathan’s explanation of a unique African groove, Mangambe. Today we introduce our first African element:…
Half-Time Shuffle-Funk Exercises in African-American Funk
This month, we move the backbeat of the shuffle groove over to beat three. What this does is transform the shuffle into a half-time, triplet-based funk groove, which we’ll call “shuffle funk.” The Purdie shuffle made famous by the legendary…
The (American) Shuffle Exercises in African-American Funk
This month we’re taking a look at some basic American shuffle grooves. We’ll begin with a groove to be played with the hands. Then we’ll offer a list of bass drum options. When you practice these grooves, a strong sense…
Six- Against-Four Polyrhythm Exercises in African-American Funk
This month we continue with our excerpts from Jonathan Joseph’s book Exercises in African-American Funk: Mangambe, Biktusi, and the Shuffle. We began with last month’s exploration of the three-against-four polyrhythm, the next step in our exploration of African polyrhythms is…
Three-Against-Four Polyrhythm
Exercises in African-American Funk This month we will address is the three-against-four polyrhythm, which is crucial to many African rhythms. It’s necessary for you to be able to hear and feel this rhythm in order to alley some of the…
