Straight quarter or eight notes played without accent and all at the same length do not produce musical groove. Quarter or eight notes played with various accents and lengths may create musical groove, as long as there is enough repetition to allow the groove to 'set in'.

Note accent:

one TWO three FOUR, one TWO three FOUR .....

- Simple Jazz back beat. One of the original groove rhythmic structures.

Note length and accent:

doo be doo be doo dat dat dat be doo dat, doo be doo be doo dat dat dat be doo dat ...

- Bebop phrasing. Used in many musical genres.

Both of these examples can be used to create grooves at multiple tempos.


Comments? Other examples?

"Groove", to me, is in the best of worlds something that occurs when great musicians play together without including too much music theory or thinking. Or too much beer.

Bingo! Jan

Groove is a state of mind, translated to whatever instrument flicks your switch.

cheers,
kev

How about:

"All God's chillun got rhythm"...

Or, in the words of Fat Freddy's Cat:

"Man, I just love that shitkickin' music".

Right on! Still 'thinking and theory' can play an important role in our understanding of music or music techniques and styles with which we are unfamiliar.

Well. As long as it doesn´t get in the way when creating music..... I´ve studied music at music schools for years when a wee boy. I´ve spent most of my time since then trying to forget what I learned. Trying to get back to being a more intuitive musician, if you know what I mean.... Left the last school back in 1989. Getting closer to my goal for each day that passes.

I honestly think that the best music is being made when not thinking about music theory actively when playing. Knowledge is a important thing to have but it should not be in ones mind when playing. Big ears and intuition should be in focus. I think.

Great comment, Jan. Not to detract in any way from Randy's original post, but written analysis of music often falls short.

I remember being in the recording studio with a jazz arranger friend of mine (I was not playing, just there), where well-known string quartet was asked to play a tag on a piece that had a certain jazz syncopation. After repeatedly failing to get the feel, they took over an hour trying to "analyze" it, again without successfully playing it. In the end the arranger just played it on his own instrument himself.

Sometimes...

"writing about music is like dancing about architecture..."
(—Martin Mull?)

Best strategy in my view is "listen and emulate" (and move...)

Another example, albeit not one may go to easily in a discussion about 'groove' is the Waltz.

This style of music was/is almost always written in notation, but it was/is created for dance.

Sometimes written in 2/4, it was typically in a 6/8 meter. In all cases, there is a strong accent on the 1 and 2, with other notes being triplets.

Example:

ONE and a, TWO and a (ala Larry Welk).

Interesting is the triplet. Most current music with 'groove' will have in its core rhythmic patterns sequences of notes comprised of triplets in some form.

Music is always derived from what came before.

This was really the fault of the booking agent, not the quartet. Doubt that the Jazz guy could play many of the pieces the quartet play in the style intended.