Anytime a groove or figure in which the performer moves from instrument to instrument (ie. Snare, Kick, HiHat, Tom, etc.) and no two instruments sound at the same time.

See Bart's lesson, Linear Drumming - Basics for notation and performance examples.

The groove performed by Steve Gadd on Paul Simon's "50 Ways To Leave Your Lover" is a perfect example of linear drumming. Even if two sound sources are played at the same time within a groove, and the majority of the groove is one sound source per subdivision, that groove would still be considered linear. For a visual example, a linear groove would move across the staff horizontally with no vertical notes. When you play the Kick drum, you would not see a HiHat note on the same beat ... and so on.

Taking basic grooves that you are already familar with is a really great way to learn Linear drumming. Simply choose to leave out some of the sounds which sound at the same time.

Funk drumming in general tends to make wide use of linear concepts. This is not to say that everything that is played in Funk is always linear, but rather it is a concept that has become a major part of the Funk sound.

See also linear