Swung Sixteenth Note Grooves

When it comes to playing slap bass grooves, many of us fall into the trap of playing only in 4/4 time with a straight feel. Of course, music comes in all shapes and sizes and it’s vital that you’re able to apply your slap chops to a variety of different feels and time signatures. With that in mind, in this video course we’ll be looking at some exercises which are played with a swung sixteenth note feel.

Swung sixteenth note grooves have an underlying triplet feel. This means that in a group of four sixteenth notes the first and third subdivisions are slightly longer, whilst the second and fourth are slightly shorter. This creates a swung feel to the sixteenth note pulse.

To become comfortable with this feel, I recommend listening to ‘Superstition’ by Stevie Wonder’ and ‘Somebody Else’s Guy’ by Jocelyn Brown. Both are great examples of the swung sixteenth note feel.

Don’t forget to hit the Download Resources button above in order to download the PDF worksheet and audio files for this course (available to subscribers only). The worksheet is available with TAB and without, for those who wish to give their reading skills a workout.