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What is groove?
[LAUGHTER] I think we need to talk a little bit
about the different ways that people use that word.
Even when we started this class,
we had slightly different definitions.
We kept saying the word and we were referring to different things.
Right.
So I think at Berklee,
it generally tends to mean time feel.
Right.
So that's the way that a particular player or group of players play the beat;
the way that their unique way of interpreting the beat works together.
Right.
A great example of that is on the D'Angelo record where
you have Crest Love on drums and he's back.
Way back.
Way back and then Pino Palladino who's like on point.
Super pushing a little bit.
That gives you this tension that that really makes the groove feel really wirey,
which I think is a great example of idiosyncratic group groove.
Absolutely. Groove can also mean just the style that you're looking at.
When you're talking to a drummer, you might be like,
let's try a Latin groove or let's try a swing groove on this,
and that could be what you mean by groove.
Of style.
But it is the style itself.
But in terms of style and looking at the beat
and how people mess with the beat in different ways,
if you think of the beat as this central location, it's a grid.
We're talking about a mark in time,
then you have these different approaches stylistically to that.
Then a lot of times if you're over here ahead of the beat,
you might be more in the genre of bluegrass or heavy metal.
As you get closer to the center of the beat, you're still ahead of it.
You might be in like folk and country land,
and then when you get right on top of the beat,
it's super pop, commercial pop,
and then you start moving behind the beat,
you get into things like funk,
R&B, soul, hip hop,
and then all the way over here somewhere is reggae.
So whether you're ahead of the beat or behind the beat,
could be what you mean.
Quantizing, which is when we're arranging by ourselves,
we're usually quantizing everything.
That's one of the places where it can be hard to make it feel groovy.
Even though everything's perfect and most pop is quantized.
But it doesn't have that interesting cool feel.
Human thing.
That real musicians have when they play a groove in their own particular way.
Then if you are quantizing,
you also have to have an innate understanding
of what kind of subdivision of beat you're working with.
That's another way to use the word groove.
Exactly.
What is the beat subdivision.
For example, you might be on a straight eighth feel one and two,
and three, and four,
and nothing in the song is playing in between those beats.
Or you might be on a swing eighth.
One, and two, and three, and four,
and you could be on a straight 16th,
one, and the two, and the three, and the four,
and not to be confused with the shuffle or swing 16th.
Jack swing.
Such a different feel if you really zero in on what's happening in a groove,
one, and a two, and a three, and a four.
There's a feeling of a latency of the second every other 16th.
Then there's the triplet or three eighth notes grouped together.
Compound meter.
Compound meter of six eight,
and nine eight, and twelve eight.
One, two, three, four, five, six.
So you could be speaking to a drummer or other players in the band and
saying this is a straight 16th groove,
and that could be what you mean.
Yeah, exactly. So for all purposes,
let's say that when we use the word groove,
we're going to be talking about the way that all the parts fit together to
create a whole rhythmic texture that is groovy.
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