Mike Portnoy

Dream Theater · Progressive-metal architect — coordination, orchestration, odd meters

The grooves Mike Portnoy actually uses across their path, moves and song studies — each one opens the same exercise workout the rest of the app links to.

Linear Groove Around the Kit

Level 3

Groove · 55–130 BPM

'Linear' means only one limb sounds at a time — no kick and hi-hat together, ever. It forces your hands off the snare and onto the toms to fill the space.

Goal: Modern linear groove vocabulary you can drop into a fill

Workout

Snare Displacement

Level 3

Groove · 55–130 BPM

Normally the snare lands on 2 and 4. Here you slide it slightly later each time — onto the 'e', then the '&', then the 'a' — while the hi-hat and kick refuse to move.

Goal: You feel the pulse independently of the backbeat

Workout