“Hurts So Good,” like many other songs played on the radio today, sounds technically basic and very simple. But if you listen carefully, there are many creative subtleties in the music. Hot licks and flash may catch a listener’s ears, but that doesn’t necessarily make a good song. The difficulty is in presenting a musical idea in its simplest form, but still keeping it interesting and exciting to the listener. So the basic beat in this song is simple enough, but as you play through it you’ll notice that some of the drum fills are played along with the hi-hat (measures 6, 10, 80, 82, 90, 109, 113). Playing the left hand on the hi-hat and right hand on the snare drum throughout the song can give you the flexibility to do fills while maintaining the beat or groove at the same time. The beat keeps going and the song […]

June 1983 Issue