What each drum does
Learn the job of each drum, build the beat of your track, and try five classic patterns that styles are built on.
The spine of a beat
The kick is the anchor and goes on strong beats. The snare, clap or rim marks the backbeat on beats 2 and 4. Hats keep time in between, and percussion adds colour on the weak steps.
Rule of thumb: heavy, low sounds on strong beats; light, high sounds on weak ones. Put a big kick on a weak sixteenth and the whole beat feels like it tripped.
Five patterns to know
Four on the floor (house): kick on every beat. Backbeat: kick on 1 and 3, snare on 2 and 4. Half-time: snare only on beat 3, so the tempo feels halved. One drop (reggae): beat 1 is empty, kick and snare land together on beat 3. Steppers (dub): four on the floor with the snare or rim on beat 3. 2-step (UK garage, Burial): kick on 1 and the "&" of 3, swung hats.
Lesson 2
- What each drum does.
- In this lesson you will learn the job of each drum, build the beat of your track, and try five classic patterns that styles are built on.
Every drum in a beat has a job.
The kick is the anchor, the snare marks the backbeat, hats are the clock, and percussion adds colour. They also sit at different heights, from the low kick you feel to the high hats you hear as sparkle.
Here's the spine of most downtempo and hip hop
Kick on the 1 and around beat 3, snare on 2 and 4, hats on the "&"s.
Play it. Then click squares to move the second kick and hear how the feel changes.
Moving one kick by a single step changes the whole bounce.
Five patterns a lot of music grows from.
Switch between them and play each one. Look at where the kick sits compared with the snare: that relationship is most of a style's identity.
The one drop floats because beat 1 is empty. Steppers pushes because the kick never stops.
- Go to B01 (hold PATTERN, press T2, press 1).
- Press RECORD, select T1 and remove the kicks on 5 and 13 by pressing them.
- Add one on 11.
- Press PLAY.
Your kick now sits on 1, 9 and 11: a relaxed, rolling bounce.
Select T3 and place hats on the "&"s: 3, 7, 11 and 15.
This is the spine from the drawing, on your own machine.
- Hear each job by taking it away.
- Press RECORD to leave grid recording.
- Then mute and unmute tracks with FUNC + T1, T2 and T3 while it plays.
No kick: it floats. No snare: no backbeat, it feels lost. No hats: it stops moving forward.
- Save B01 (hold FUNC, long-press SETTINGS).
- Then copy it to B02: hold PATTERN + 1 and press RECORD.
- Then hold PATTERN + 2 and press and hold STOP until the countdown finishes.
- Go to B02 (hold PATTERN, press 2).
B02 is a copy to experiment on. B01 stays safe.
On B02, build a one drop
- Press RECORD, select T1, clear every kick and place one on 9 only.
- Select T2, remove 5 and 13, place the snare on 9.
- Press PLAY.
Everything hits together on beat 3. The empty downbeat makes it float.
Still on B02, turn the one drop into steppers
- On T1, add kicks on 1, 5 and 13.
- Then go back to B01 and listen to your own beat again.
Same tempo, three different worlds. Your B01 beat sits between them.
In a one drop, where does the kick land?
Answer
Only on beat 3 (9), together with the snare. Beat 1, normally the strongest, is left empty, so the music hangs in the air until beat 3 lands.
Where you put the kick against the snare decides the style before any sound is chosen.
This lesson's challenge
On B03, recreate the 2-step pattern from the drawing at 90 BPM. Does it still feel like garage when it's slow? Keep B01 as your track.