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