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- Year 7
The role of the kick and snare in drum grooves
I can identify the role of the kick and the snare in a drum groove and play a typical rock pattern.
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- Year 7
The role of the kick and snare in drum grooves
I can identify the role of the kick and the snare in a drum groove and play a typical rock pattern.
Copyrighted materials: to view and download resources from this lesson, you’ll need to be in the UK and
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Lesson details
Key learning points
- A drum groove is the main rhythm or beat played by the drums in piece of music.
- The kick and snare drums play an important role within the groove.
- In rock and most pop music, the snare usually plays a backbeat, which emphasizes the 2nd and 4th beats of a bar.
- The kick drum often plays on the 1st and 3rd beats.
- You can use a digital audio workstation (DAW) to play and create drum grooves.
Keywords
Kick - the bass drum in the middle of a drum kit
Snare - a medium sized drum with a set of wires underneath the lower skin to create a distinctive sound
Drum groove - the overall rhythmic feel created by the kick and snare patterns
Back beat - a back beat is played on the 2nd and 4th beats of a bar, usually on a snare drum
Digital audio workstation - a digital audio workstation (DAW) is a piece of software for recording, editing, producing and composing
Common misconception
Pupils start playing on the snare because they are used to reading left to right.
Emphasise that the kick is the start because it is central within the drum kit.
To help you plan your year 7 music lesson on: The role of the kick and snare in drum grooves, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs...
To help you plan your year 7 music lesson on: The role of the kick and snare in drum grooves, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs.
The starter quiz will activate and check your pupils' prior knowledge, with versions available both with and without answers in PDF format.
We use learning cycles to break down learning into key concepts or ideas linked to the learning outcome. Each learning cycle features explanations with checks for understanding and practice tasks with feedback. All of this is found in our slide decks, ready for you to download and edit. The practice tasks are also available as printable worksheets and some lessons have additional materials with extra material you might need for teaching the lesson.
The assessment exit quiz will test your pupils' understanding of the key learning points.
Our video is a tool for planning, showing how other teachers might teach the lesson, offering helpful tips, modelled explanations and inspiration for your own delivery in the classroom.
Explore more key stage 3 music lessons from the Fundamental drum grooves unit, dive into the full secondary music curriculum, or learn more about lesson planning.
Files needed for this lesson
- Rock groove template 9.53 MB (ZIP)
- Rock groove drum kit audio 499.67 KB (MP3)
- Rock groove backing track 499.67 KB (MP3)
Download these files to use in the lesson.
Equipment
A DAW or other suitable compositional tool or instrument
Licence
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