Mambo - Drum Groove

The mambo is a dance rhythm originating from Cuba, characterized by a fast tempo and a strong emphasis on beats 2 and 3 of each measure. The mambo is often associated with Latin-jazz music and is typically played with percussion, brass, and piano, creating a lively and energetic atmosphere.

There are various rhythms that can be played for the mambo. This version of the mambo for drumset is a very challenging groove for coordination. You can play a simpler version with the hi-hat on 1 & 3 or 2 & 4 instead of this version, which features the 2-3 Son Clave. It is presented using the clock or rhythm wheel method in order to facilitate the understanding of what is played by each limb. This is also very useful to understand what different grooves have in common or not.

I designed the Groove series to be a complementary approach to traditional musical notation. It presents some advantages to understand the structure of repetitive rhythms. The geometric shape of the rhythm is immediately visible, and the properties are then easily recognized.

My goal with this series was to create a learning tool where the musician can spend more time practicing the rhythm and less time trying to figure out what to play.

To build this video series, I use After Effects for all the animations and Ableton Live to record, sequence, and process the drum sounds.

Drum Grooves Collection:

If you want to learn more about the usefulness of this representation, there's a great book by Godfried T. Toussaint called "The Geometry of Musical Rhythm."

[darkpassenger]

After playing without much guidance for around 20 years, I began to take lessons. 5 years later, as I'm leaning toward mostly jazz and Afro-Cuban rhythms, I've found more help here than anywhere OTHER than my instructor. The visual representation is fantastic! Thanks!

[robertryder]

These breakdowns are brilliant - thank you!

[pantanplanx]

Thanks a lot, this release made my day !

[daveamalfitano]

This is awesome. I’ve never seen this way of learning anything on the drums before What is this called?

[jean-mathieuleclerc]

Thanks now I have to cancel my plans for the weekend.

[andriyisayev]

great design. it is worth creating an app for iPad.

[johnpaulmcdonnell]

Make a an app where you can scan sheet music, tabs or record sounds and it plots the music on an animation like this. Like an equilizer

[pinadesecada]

It sounded more or less easy untill I noticed the clave hit hat...

[daveamalfitano]

I’m not sure whats everyone’s opinion it sounds to me on the bell pattern It should be 3/1/4/3 not 3/1/4/4 What does everyone think?

[gianpierocea]

I am not a drummer but i am trying to get into afro cuban rhythms and in particular understanding the clave and how it affects all the rest of the song, so this is already great.

What i would like to understand, i suppose this is a 2-3 version of mambo given that's the clave plaged by hi-hat. Could you also have a 3-2 version ch changing the hi hat! Anee nore importantly in this hypothetical version would you also need to change some of the other parts? Thanks!

[DrumGarner]

If this was an app (pc or mobile), where you would had the ability to slow down the BPM for each lesson, I would gladly pay for that!

[chukfunk]

Wait… can anyone actually do this? Like perfectly?