Okuzeka
Music vocabulary · Rhythm, Meter and Tempo

Groove

Meaning in music, with examples

/ɡruːv/nounCommon term

In music, groove means: The rhythmic feel of a piece that makes people want to move, created mainly by the drums and bass locking together.

In Turkish: groove, ritmik akış, ritim hissi

How it is used

An informal but essential word for drummers, bassists and producers. A band can 'lock into the groove', 'find the groove' or 'lose the groove'; a track has a great groove. 'Groovy' and 'grooving' are related informal words.

Example sentences

  1. Don't play too many fills; just sit on the groove and let the singer shine.

  2. The drummer and bassist found a great groove in the second half of the song.

Common collocations

  • lock into the groove
  • find the groove
  • tight groove
  • sit on the groove
  • groove-based
  • rhythmThe pattern of long and short sounds and silences in music, and how they are placed in time against the beat.
  • beatThe steady pulse that you tap your foot to in a piece of music. Beats are grouped into bars, and their speed is the tempo.
  • syncopationPlacing accents on weak beats or between beats instead of on the strong beats, which makes a rhythm feel surprising and lively.
  • percussionInstruments played by hitting, shaking or scraping them, such as drums, cymbals, the xylophone, the tambourine and the darbuka.
  • tempoThe speed of a piece of music, usually measured in beats per minute (BPM) or shown with Italian words such as allegro (fast) or adagio (slow).

More terms: Rhythm, Meter and Tempo

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