Funkify the Songo

The Songo is a funky Afro-Cuban groove with a lot of potential. It's great to substitute for funk grooves sometimes in jam sessions, which really changes up the feel of the song. In this lesson, we're going to look at one version of the Songo, then permutate it to create more grooves.

First, here's a (reasonably busy) version of the Songo for you to learn. Please note - this is not the definitive Songo! Many world groove experts would disagree on the 'definitive' Songo, due to there being many regional variants etcetera. This is simply one variant that works for me and sounds good in most situations. Remember to play the accents fairly strong and the other snare notes light (about 3-5cm from the snare drum). Keep this groove light and happy. The bass drum pattern should be fairly prominent, with the snare and hi-hats filling in the spaces. Feel free to play a cowbell instead of the hi-hat.

Once you have that groove happening and feeling nice and dancey, we're going to mess with it a bit. The technical term for this is permutation. To permutate a groove, you simply take the first sixteenth note from the start of the groove and tack it on the end. Then, shuffle everything over to fill up the vacant spot. If you perform this process on a linear 16th note groove (oh, look! the Songo is a linear 16th note groove!) until you end up back at the start again, you end up with 15 variants or permutations, plus the original. It's a simple, systematic process that gives you tremendous potential for creating new grooves and variants from one idea.

Here's the full list of permutations on the Songo groove that you've just learnt. The original groove is notated at the start, and the permutations occur after that. Learn each permutation with a metronome, so that you have a clear focus on the beat. Keep it slow and steady and count out loud as you play.

You'll find that learning this page will give you a lot more flexibility in your groove playing. Some of the grooves have off-beat hi-hat, others have the hats on the "e" or the "a" of the beat. If you want a real 4-way co-ordination challenge, play the hats part on your cowbell or ride cymbal and keep a quarter note beat with your left foot on the hi-hats!

Enjoy! If you have any questions, feel free to leave them here, and I'll do my best to answer them.

P.S. I'd like to give credit where it's due. The permutation concept was popularized by David Garibaldi (Tower of Power's drummer) in his book Future Sounds. I highly recommend you get a copy if you're serious about studying funk and linear grooves.