What is the difference between rhythm and groove

A good guitarist or bassist can strum or pluck with good time; an excellent one mutes those notes or chords in time as well. You might be wondering what the difference is between a groove and plain old inaccurate timekeeping.

The big factor is intentionality. Playing behind the beat intentionally sounds really good. Dragging unintentionally sounds really bad. Ditto with playing in front of the beat versus rushing. You might resist the idea of reducing the mystical concept of groove down to something so technical.

You might object that groove is in the heart. I agree! Groove is in the heart. Quite the contrary. I find it totally amazing that the organization of sounds into patterns in time, along with slight deviations from those patterns, can bring a roomful of dancing people into a state of sweat-drenched ecstasy.

Thanks a lot for the cool article! It explains a lot! But i still cant manage to fully understand the concept. How would you define these terms? What are the main differences between groove and feel?

Drummertist Silver Member. Groove n. Feel v. All this according to Websters Dictionary To me: A groove is a type of feel. The most obvious example would be to say to listen to some old funk tunes. Those songs have a real groove to them. A smooth, easy rhythm. Feel is kind of a broader term.

Playing the right feel to a tune doesn't necessarily mean it has a great groove. Think of any fast punk tunes, or death metal. Those are feels, but they don't groove. Practise and add a meaningful level of musicality to the notes you choose. Buy drum pads, or use your keyboard to ensure you bring feel to the drum and perc parts you program. Listen to a broad range of music.

Groove can unfold over a bar, two bars, four, or eight. By all means build grooves which lock to a recognisable structure, but make the feel unfold over a longer period of time.

The results are often more sophisticated and more musical. As explored, if you create a rhythmic feel which gets your track grooving, one way to dilute that clear foundation is to apply a different feel to the next instrument you add. In this way, you can very quickly lock a number of instruments to a personalised groove.