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:
• Drum Grooves
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."

[@sebastiaocorreia2560]

I cant wait for Mambo 5

[@lucasalexandrefernandesdos9865]

A little bit of Monica in my liiiife, A little bit of Erica by my siiiiide, a little bit of Rita is all I neeeeed

[@velvetjones8634]

Damn it, now it’s on loop in my head.

[@steeletoeboots]

​@lucasalexandrefernandesdos9865 Ha! I wasn't even thinking of that until! Now its stuck on loop for the rest of the day. I will get no work done today!

[@darkpassenger1980]

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!

[@DrumsetFundamentals]

that's great !! Thank you

[@zieykey]

fav one so far!

[@robertryder1097]

These breakdowns are brilliant - thank you!

[@jean-mathieuleclerc3376]

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

[@DrumsetFundamentals]

Haha! this is an hard one to play well ! good luck !

[@chadjohnston3475]

Such a fun beat 🔥

[@pantanplanx22]

Thanks a lot, this release made my day !

[@toprak3479]

This is beyond difficult holy moly

[@simoncoupe8294]

tip in case you weren't aware. Slow down the playback speed in the video settings. The thing with four way manual dexterity (separate lines on all four limbs) is that it seems like such a tongue twister to start with. But then you keep working at it and one day it just clicks and you don't even have to compute as you go. Keep working and I'm sure you'll get there.

[@a.nobodys.nobody]

Also good to check out a more traditional approach to compliment this. Esp helps w counting. But yeah this is a funky beast

[@johnpaulmcdonnell6562]

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

[@allegro_manontroppo]

Ipnotico 🌀 thanks you!

[@DrumsetFundamentals]

my pleasure !

[@dizzypilots2639]

Awesome 😎

[@andriyisayev2606]

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

[@a.nobodys.nobody]

There's a circle rhythm app in the apple store

[@pinadesecada2585]

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

[@DrumsetFundamentals]

Yeah, you can play the hihat on 2 & 4 or 1 & 3, it'll change the feel, but that's fine, there's a lot of variations for the Mambo.

[@warrenstrife4818]

yeah right? this makes the whole thing so much harder play. i might try on the 2 and 4 first to get used to it

[@DrumsetFundamentals]

You can try to play the whole rhythm "very slow" like one "dot" with all limbs, every second or slower, as slow as needed to play it easily. Another approach is to play the clave first, and incorporate each new limb "one dot" at a time until it feels good, then add another note and so on... Or the other way around play all the limbs that you can play confortably, and add the clave rhythm one "dot" at a time until it feel confortable, than add another clave note etc...

[@warrenstrife4818]

@@DrumsetFundamentals nice, yeah I've been trying to play about one dot per second 😂 I'll get it in a few weeks

[@freemax69]

⚡S U P E R 🔥

[@M_SC]

You’re maybe a genius

[@user-zz6jn6jj7v]

😮

[@101Metronomes]

Fucking brilliant

[@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!

[@steeletoeboots]

I agree, and could it be possible to make your own rhythms in the app too? Or modify ones and add different varieties of snares, toms etc. That would be hours of fun. 🎉

[@chukfunk]

Wait… can anyone actually do this? Like perfectly?

[@Dyadactic]

Right? I’ve got the hands. But adding the feet in? Lmao. Give me 6 months

[@chukfunk]

@@Dyadactic ya, even the hands took a bit. I love the process of going round and round getting pieces of the pie until they all link together.

[@warrenstrife4818]

I'm two days into this and it's challenging, but i think with consistent daily practice of 1 hour i will have the coordination in 4-6 weeks... there's a lot going on here 😂😂

[@Darrida]

Cyclotomic Field