Hello revolutionary music makers, I’m Kate Harmony, this is Ray Harmony, and welcome
to Hack Music Theory, where we help you make great music that stands out. And if it’s
your first time here, please help yourself to our free book “12 Music Theory Hacks
to Learn Scales & Chords”, which you can download from our website. Alright, it’s
time to open your DAW to hack music theory. But first… tea!
Swedish band Port Noir recently released their new album “The New Routine”, which is
one of the most underrated albums of the year, as this band has created a sound that’s
totally up-to-date but also totally unique. They arrived at this super fresh sound by
blending the melodies of pop, the synths of electronic, the guitars of rock, and the grooves
of hip-hop. And as everything is built on this flawless foundation of epic grooves,
that’s what we’ll be hacking in this lesson. So what makes this drummer so good? Well,
he actually plays relatively simple grooves, but they’re so tasty that it’s physically
impossible not to move to them. And the way he gets our bodies moving, is by offsetting
his syncopated kicks with a solid backbeat snare, and then spicing everything up with
incredibly creative cymbal patterns.
Alright, now you’re gonna learn how to use this theory to make your own version. So,
start by setting up four bars of 4/4, with your grid set to 1/32 notes, and your tempo
set to 72 BPM. And in this lesson we’ll be hacking the chorus groove of their song
“Young Bloods”.
STEP 1. KICK & SNARE
First things first, throw in the backbeat snare in every bar, which is on beat 2 and
beat 4. This will give your groove momentum, and get those heads bobbing and feet tapping.
Next, throw in the kick on beat 1 in every bar. This will provide a reference point for
all your off-beat kicks, which you’re gonna get to next. Right, now it’s time to inject
the syncopation (which is an accented off-beat), and that is what’s gonna get people seriously
moving to your drums. And be sure to use a combination of off-beat 1/8 notes and off-beat
1/16 notes. This will add depth to your groove, and prevent your drums from getting boring.
Also, change up a couple bars with a little variation on the kick. In this example, bars
two and three have the same kick pattern, but bars one and four are different.
And by the way, if you wanna get your hands on our best drum hacks, then download the
two drum PDFs we have over at HackMusicTheory.com/Books and those downloads include step-by-step
PDF guides and multitrack MIDI files.
STEP 2. CYMBALS
Right, now that you’ve got a solid groove in place, it’s time to spice it up with
hi-hats, and this is where things get really interesting. So start by deciding what syncopated
kicks you wanna accent, and then add an open hat on those hits. And if you wanna add an
open hat where there is no kick, that’s cool too. Now you’re gonna create a 1/16
note closed hat pattern around those open hats, which will lead into and out of them
nice and smoothly. Next, you’re gonna add even more spice, by throwing in a few 1/32
notes on the closed hats. So between two 1/16 hits, add a 1/32 hit. This creates a little
roll on the hats, and if you do them in a few different places, it’ll keep your groove
totally fresh. Lastly, change your grid to 1/32 note triplets, and before one of your
open hats, add a 1/32 note triplet roll that leads into that open hat. This is next level
spice, and while your average listener won’t even notice it, your super fans will love it!
Alright, now let’s have a listen to this epic drum groove. But just before the playthrough,
if there’s an artist you’d like us to hack, please let us know. Thanks for watching
(or listening, if you’re on the podcast), and we’ll see you next week!