Level 2 · Funk

Zigaboo & The Meters

Deeper Zigaboo — broken backbeat, rolling 16ths, kick-bass conversation

Duration · 30 min Focus · Vocabulary / New Orleans

The first Meters lesson got the basics under your hands — broken backbeats, the second-line lean, the basic Cissy Strut feel. This lesson goes deeper. Zigaboo's playing has three more features that make it instantly recognisable: a rolling right hand that plays continuous 16ths even at slow tempos, a kick that converses with the bass rather than locking with it (kick and bass guitar trade syncopated figures, leaving each other's space alone), and a broken backbeat that moves around the bar — sometimes on 4, sometimes on the "e" of 2, sometimes nowhere at all, with cross-stick or rim hits filling in.

The pattern most often called "Bo Diddley beat" — a tresillo-shaped figure (1, the & of 2, the "a" of 3, beat 4-or-thereabouts, beat 4-and-a-bit) — predates Bo Diddley and predates rock. It comes out of the same Afro-Caribbean rhythmic grammar that gives us son clave, the New Orleans second line, and the funk we're studying here. Zigaboo's playing draws on this lineage; many Meters records use a kick figure that's essentially a tresillo with funk dressing. (See Goines/Ameen — Afro-Cuban Grooves for Bass and Drums for the deep-dive on the cross-pollination.)

Don't try to play these grooves "tight" in the Stubblefield sense. Zigaboo's pocket is loose. Notes are placed where they feel right, not on the metronomic grid. Practise with a metronome anyway — but let your ear lead, and let the click be a guide rather than a tyrant. If a snare on 4 wants to be a hair late, let it be a hair late.

1 — Classic Meters Pocket Groove
4/4 · ♩ = 90
Tresillo-flavoured kick: 1, the a of 1, 3, the a of 3 — a 3+3+2 shape that's the rhythmic skeleton of countless Caribbean and New Orleans grooves. Snare lands on the e of 2, beat 2, the a of 3, and 4 — a busy, almost-rim-popping snare line. Loose feel, slightly behind, ghost the non-backbeat snares heavily.
2 — Broken Backbeat (Snare on 4 Only)
4/4 · ♩ = 90
Only the snare on beat 4 is loud — every other snare hit in the bar is a ghost note. Read it as: 16th hat carpet, snare ghosts scattered, one big snare slap on 4. The bar feels like it's holding its breath through 1, 2, and 3 and finally exhaling on 4. Beginners want to add a snare on 2; resist.
3 — Kick + Ride Dialogue
4/4 · ♩ = 92
Move to the ride for this one (f/5/x2). The right hand plays simple 8ths; the kick is doing all the work — a syncopated, almost-busy 16th-note pattern that converses with where the bass guitar would sit in a band. The snare is just a backbeat marker. Imagine a bass player finding pockets between your kicks; that two-voice conversation is what makes Meters records groove.
4 — Full Zigaboo-Flavoured 2-Bar Pattern
4/4 · ♩ = 90
Two bars of Meters-style pocket. Bar 1 emphasises the broken feel; bar 2 has slightly more density — extra ghosts in the back half of the bar pushing into bar 1 of the repeat. The snare lands on slightly different 16ths in the two bars, which keeps the listener's ear engaged across the phrase. Aim for a relaxed, slightly-behind feel; this groove should feel like it's strolling, not running.
Move on when
  • Can play a Meters-style pocket groove for 16 bars at ♩=90 with snare on 4 only
  • Kick-and-ride dialogue exercise sustains a clear two-voice conversation for 16 bars
  • Full 2-bar Zigaboo-flavored phrase loops without the broken backbeat collapsing into a normal one