How drum patterns work

You do not need to read music or play drums to make a convincing beat. A drum pattern is a short grid of choices: where the kick lands, where the snare or clap answers it, and how the hi-hat divides the space between them.

Today you will build a two-bar pattern in a browser, rebuild it in REAPER, and change the second bar so the loop does not sound copied and pasted.

What you should be able to do

By the end of class, you should be able to:

find the four main beats in a 16-step grid;
place a snare or clap on beats 2 and 4 to create a backbeat;
use hi-hats to divide the beat into smaller parts;
program a two-bar drum pattern in Sitala; and
change note placement and velocity to make the second bar different.

Four useful terms

Pulse is the steady beat you might tap with your foot.

Tempo is the speed of that pulse, measured in beats per minute, or BPM.

Backbeat is a snare or clap on beats 2 and 4. It is common in rock, hip-hop, R&B, funk, house, and many other styles.

Subdivision is how we divide each beat into smaller parts. Hi-hats often play eighth notes or sixteenth notes and make those divisions audible.

1. Feel the layers, 5 minutes

Keep a steady four-count with your foot:

1 2 3 4 | 1 2 3 4

Clap only on 2 and 4. Keep the foot going while you clap. Then speak or tap two even sounds for every beat:

1 & 2 & 3 & 4 &

Your foot is holding the pulse, your hands are playing the backbeat, and your voice is supplying the subdivision. A programmed beat uses the same layers.

2. Build the pattern in Ableton Learning Music, 12 minutes

Open Make Beats in a browser. The grid has 16 steps. Steps 1, 5, 9, and 13 mark beats 1, 2, 3, and 4.

Work through these short activities:

Then open Play with beats and make your own one-bar pattern. Start with this recipe if the empty grid is intimidating:

Put the kick on beats 1 and 3.
Put the clap on beats 2 and 4.
Put the closed hi-hat on every eighth note.
Add one more kick somewhere between the main beats.

Change the tempo. Notice that the pattern stays the same even though its speed changes.

3. Hear what can change, 8 minutes

Listen to a short section of each track in class.

Afrika Bambaataa and Soulsonic Force, “Planet Rock”

Listen for the steady electronic pulse, backbeat, and repeating subdivisions. Which drum part makes the beat feel stable?

J Dilla, “Donuts (Intro)”

Listen for hits that feel early, late, or uneven. What keeps the pattern together even when it does not sound locked to a rigid grid?

There is no single correct kick pattern. A listener usually needs enough repetition to recognize the pattern and enough change to stay interested.

4. Rebuild your beat in REAPER, 15 minutes

Create an instrument track and add Sitala.
Create a two-bar MIDI item.
Set the MIDI editor grid to sixteenth notes.
Add kick notes for the first bar.
Add a snare or clap on beats 2 and 4.
Add closed hi-hats on eighth notes.
Copy the first bar into the second bar.
Change at least one kick or hi-hat in the second bar.

If you lose track of the beat, find beats 1, 2, 3, and 4 first. Add the notes between them only after the main pulse makes sense.

5. Make the repetition breathe, 7 minutes

Velocity controls how strongly a MIDI note triggers the drum sampler. Lower every other hi-hat slightly. Keep the main hats louder and the hats between the beats quieter.

Try one more change:

remove a kick from the second bar;
add a kick just before beat 3 or beat 4;
replace the last closed hi-hat with an open hi-hat; or
leave a small gap before the loop returns to bar 1.

Listen before and after each change. Keep the version whose effect you can hear and describe.

Exit pattern, 3 minutes

Before you leave, play a two-bar loop for your neighbor or instructor that has:

kick, snare or clap, and hi-hat;
a clear pulse and backbeat;
at least one change in the second bar; and
at least two different velocity levels.

Save it. This can become the drum track for Project 4: Drum Programming and Beatmaking .

How Drum Patterns Work