Hi, this is Ethan, and welcome to Play With Your Music. In this video we're going to be
talking about some classic drum beats and a variety of styles and how to program them in
the drum machine before we get started on the actual music just a word about what it is that
you're seeing on the screen over here you've got a standard time unit box system representation
of each beat this is the way that it would look if you were to program it into an actual drum
machine or software emulating a drum machine and if you look in the link at the in the description
of the video you can get a Google spreadsheet that contains all of the drum patterns that I
talked about in this video plus many others so please go ahead and do that but I'm also showing
you everything in my preferred circular notation because that helps you understand the functions
a little bit better so this first beat is called four-on-the-floor it's something that you hear in
every disco techno EDM song basically it's called four-on-the-floor because you've got a kick drum
here here here and here all of the strongest beats the the downbeat the backbeat the next downbeat
the next backbeat and any kind of disco techno EDM beat is going to have those four kick drums
on the strongest beats you've also got on the back beats here the third beats you've got both
snares and handclaps and on the off beats you've got some some high hats so let's listen to it
so the only thing that's keeping the speed from being totally symmetrical predictable and boring
is this one a little bit of syncopation right here this open hi-hat on the the
end of one on the second measure and that's a good way to keep your your house techno disco
beats from being too boring is to introduce a little syncopation on top of the standard four
on the floor all right the next really crucial pattern we've got is just standard rock and roll
everything is on a relatively strong beat we've got nothing at all on the ands you've got a kick
drum on every quarter note except for the back beats on the back beats instead you've got the
snare drum and this snare drum on the back beat is something that you're going to see
in every single beat that we talked about if there's one thing that ties together all forms
of dance rock pop whatever music it snare drums on the back beats so because there's nothing at
all on the weak beats on the ends this beat is a little bit square let's listen to it
so it sounds good right it's got to drive to it but it's a little predictable this is a rock
beat that is a little bit different from the standard one it is the drum intro to when the
levee breaks by Led Zeppelin and what makes this beat different is it does start to introduce some
syncopation so right here you've got a kick drum on the and of two which is actually the weakest
beat that there is the most sits like the most dissonant beat rhythmically speaking instead of
this kick drum where you're expecting it down here on the second downbeat it's anticipated
so there's no kick drum at all instead it's on this other extremely weak beat the end of four
and then you have yet another kick drum on a weak beat right here on the end of two so even
though the snare and the hi-hat patterns are exactly the same as in a standard rock
beat the kick drum pattern is quite a bit more complex and syncopated and for that reason hip
hops producers love to sample this beat probably is most famously used in Ryman and stealin by
the Beastie Boys also lyrical gang bang by dr. dre and it's appeared in some non hip hop songs
as well most notably our me of me by Bjork and damn I wish I was your lover by Sophie B Hawkins
all right from rock we're going to start moving into funk and hip hop and you're going to see more
and more syncopation as we go this beat is called impeach the president it comes from the first few
seconds of the song by the same name by a group called Bonnie drippers not a very well-known
group not a very well-known song but you have definitely heard this beat according to the
website who sampled calm it's the most commonly sampled beat in hip-hop history it's used on at
least one commercial recording every year since 1987 and most years like dozens or hundreds of
recordings so let's listen to it so again this beat is very very similar to the standard rock
beat you've got your snares on the back beats you've got your closed high hats marking off
all the quarters but again as with when the levee breaks got a little bit more syncopation so you've
got this kick drum here on the first end of four you've got this hi-hat also on that same weak beat
and then here you've got this surprising open hi-hat and again just that little little bit of
syncopation is enough to really give it a groove and give it a more kind of unpredictable feeling
another extremely common hip hop break beat this is from the funky drummer parts 1 & 2 by James
Brown this beat was played by a drummer named Clyde Stubblefield was only 18 years old when the
boarding was made and it's an incredible one and just from glancing at it you can see that it's a
lot more complicated than any of the beats we've talked about so far so let's listen to it alright
so what's going on here first of all instead of an eighth note pulse it's got a sixteenth note pulse
it's got high hats on every single slot here in the pattern also there's a lot more syncopation
happening you've got no kick drum on this downbeat instead you've got it displaced all the way over
here to beat two got a kick drum on this very surprising beat and of three you've got snare
drum hits and unexpected places we've got them on the back beats but you've also got it on the end
of four and the and of four down here all these other unexpected places you've got the hi-hat
opening up and a couple of surprising spots so again quite a bit more complexity even though
you still have this foundation of a kick drum here and snares on the backbeat so it's still
a recognizable dance funk kind of beat there's just a lot more for your brain to process all
right now we move into afro-cuban land this is a beat called son clave a and you can just tell from
the instrumentation quite a very different sound from rock and funk and those kinds of those kinds
of styles you've got kicks doing this pattern that's like doo-doo-doo doo-doo-doo-doo you've
got the ride cymbal hitting every beat and all of the action all the complexity is in the rimshot or
a claw bait or some other short sharp high-pitched sound and well let's just listen to it
so some clove a appears not just an afro-cuban afro-cuban music but all kinds of rock jazz
blues funk hip hop country metal techno it's actually hard to find a style of music of dance
or pop music that does not use so Navia once in a while and what makes it so compelling is it's
very syncopated right you've got all these these hits on unexpected beats but it's also weirdly
symmetrical just by looking at it you can see it forms this kind of Pentagon and your ear can
tell that there's a symmetrical shape in there it might not be able to tell exactly what it is but
it definitely knows that there's a pattern even if it's a sort of surprising and asymmetrical pattern
this is a beat called bossa nova that's almost identical to some claw they the only difference
is that this guy is just one slot later and so on clave a it would be here and boxing over it bossa
nova it's here seems like a trivial difference but does make quite a difference in the vibe let's
so because this guy is on a weaker beat than the equivalent drum hit in song clave a this
is even more syncopated it's got a even more kind of sophisticated or banging feeling and
you don't really hear that much outside of bossa nova just because it's so clearly
evokes Brazil yeah it just doesn't have quite the same universality asone cloudy but still
a really good beat to know finally this is a classic hip-hop break beat that I'm including
because it combines some of the funk rock idiom with the afro-cuban idiom so on the
outer part of the circle you've got your kick on the downbeat you got your snares on the backbeat
you've got some some funky syncopation happening in these other kicks you mostly have the high
hats just keeping time but you do have them in a few unexpected places and then in here
you've got this Bell pattern that is very very complex very syncopated let's listen
okay if you're an aficionado of 80s hip-hop you will definitely recognize this beat from Peter
Piper by Run DMC many other songs of that era more recently it's been used in work it
by Missy Elliott and this Bell pattern that's going on has a name it's called a go-go it's
a traditional West African rhythm and it works incredibly well on top of like a straight ahead
American funk beat right pretty cool so again take a look in the description of the video for
the spreadsheet with this and all of the other beats try plugging them into the drum machine
try varying them and moving things around see what you can find for yourself have fun