An extra snare ghost on the 'and' of beat 3 adds a funk-influenced syncopation to the classic rock framework.
Syncopated Groove keeps a rock backbeat but pulls two notes off the grid: the kick hits the '&' of 2 and then the 'e' of 3, and the snare adds a hit on the '&' of 3. The displaced kick on the 'e' — a sixteenth after the beat — is what gives the pattern its funk-influenced lean.
Each column is one sixteenth note. x is a hi-hat or cymbal stroke, o is a drum.
1 e & a 2 e & a 3 e & a 4 e & a Hi-Hat x . x . x . x . x . x . x . x . Snare . . . . o . . . . . o . o . . . Kick o . . . . . o . . o . . . . . .
Count the bar out loud as 1 e & a 2 e & a 3 e & a 4 e & a and add one limb at a time.
The 'e' of 3 is the only note in this groove that does not coincide with a hi-hat stroke. Count '3 e & a' and place the kick on 'e' with nothing else happening, then add the hi-hat back.
Start slow enough to place every note deliberately, lock each rung in before moving up, and only raise the tempo once the pattern is clean. Each step opens the metronome at that tempo.
Ordered by difficulty — the first is the smallest step up.
A deliberately quiet snare stroke played between the main backbeats. It adds motion and texture without competing with the hits on 2 and 4.
Because it is the only note in the bar that falls between hi-hat strokes, so there is no other limb landing at the same moment to guide it. Subdividing sixteenths on the metronome makes it much easier to place.
60 BPM with the metronome set to sixteenth notes, so every subdivision in the groove has an audible reference. Move up once the 'e' of 3 lands consistently.