If the groove skeleton is responsible for giving a groove its genre-defining outline, then the groove apex is responsible for giving it its character, or attitude. The groove apex is subjective, meaning that you may hear a note as the essential groove apex, while I may hear the same note as not quite important enough to qualify as such; that’s okay. Generally speaking, a groove apex is the note, or notes, that stick out and help you define a groove when you hear it again — the part that you would give special emphasis to if you were singing the groove to someone. It’s often the note that is the largest interval from the root of the groove, like an octave or a 7th. A good exercise for mastering the groove apex is to subdivide a measure into 16 16th-notes, play an octave on the first 16th-note and move it to each subsequent 16th-note in the following measures. Group four 16th-notes at a time in your head to keep track of the beat. Check out Ex. 1 and give it a go. Once you have a