The Groove Builder Challenge — Free 5-Day Rhythm Course

What You'll Learn

Learn the principles. Compose your own grooves.

This isn't five disconnected tips. Over five days you'll learn a system for composing and developing grooves — and you'll see it in action as Yshai composes grooves and brings in traditional rhythms to demonstrate each idea. You finish with a way of thinking you can apply to infinite grooves, on any drum.

1

Composing a Groove

The four questions that let you compose grooves in any time signature. By the end of day one you'll have composed a rhythm of your own.

2

Fingering for Groupings

The sticking for each grouping — the hand organization that makes the groove flow and opens the door to ghost notes.

3

Adding a Fill

Break the loop and answer it. Punctuate the groove with a fill — applied to your grooves and to traditional rhythms.

4

Onto the 16th-Note Grid

Double the drive: shift the groove onto a 16th-note grid while the melody stays exactly where you composed it.

5

Ghost Notes into Accents

Add real power: replace the quiet ghost notes with 16th-note accents. The grooves you've built all week now land with weight.

Who It's For

For players who want a system

If you can hold a basic pattern and you're ready to create your own grooves — instead of endlessly copying others — this challenge is built for you.

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Any drum you play

Darbuka, cajon, frame drum, djembe — the groove thinking transfers to any drum.

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From copying to creating

Stop hunting for rhythms online. Learn to generate your own, endlessly.

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Five days, real progress

A few focused minutes a day. By Friday you'll have a groove that's truly yours.

Your Guide

Yshai Afterman

Founder of the Afterman Percussion Conservatory and a leading online teacher of Middle Eastern percussion since 2010. Former Head of the Percussion Department at Maqamat, the School of Eastern Music. His students span more than twenty-five countries — and they all start the same way: by learning to think in rhythm, not just repeat it.

This challenge is the free on-ramp to the Afterman Percussion Conservatory, where dedicated students study darbuka, riqq, and frame drum in a structured long-term program.

Join the Challenge

Start with Day 1 — free

Drop your name and email. Day 1 arrives in your inbox right away, then one short lesson a day for five days.

You're in! 🥁

Check your inbox — Day 1 is on its way. (If you don't see it, peek in Promotions or Spam and mark it "not spam" so you don't miss the rest.)