"I thought drumsticks were parts of a chicken?" A General Tutorial on Rock Drums 1

[Tensei]

Given that besides Zircon's excellent, though brief tutorial on realistic drum sequencing there's really not a lot of in-depth material on drums at all, and since I've been noticing a lot of people having trouble with writing catchy and realistic drum parts, I've decided to try and write a comprehensive guide to writing and sequencing realistic drum parts.

Not because I'm some virtuoso Mike Portnoy-level drummer, nor because I'm an amazing remixer (both of which I'm not, at least not to my knowledge), but just because I really like writing drum parts, and always find myself paying extra attention to them when I'm listening to songs. Therefore, rather than thinking of this guide as a be-all, end-all, you should think of it more as my personal view, which may or may not help you. Oh, and just so you know, I've never touched a drum kit before..ever.

Introduction

The modern drum kit different from other instruments in the fact that it is basically an amalgam of all kinds of different percussion instruments from different parts of the world, rather than having one common predecessor (as for example the guitar has evolved from the lute). We have the african tom-toms, the asian china-cymbal, and the different western orchestral snares/cymbals/bass-drums. The drum kit as it's known nowadays is an evolution of the jazz drum kits that came into popularity during the start of the 20th century, and the elements can even be traced further into the future in electronica beats, which emulate, or at least sound similar to the different components of a drum kit.

Getting to know the kit

The modern drum kit is always constructed from a number of pretty specific drums and cymbals, and while there may be some exotic variations (timbales, cowbells), the elements that make a drum kit a drum kit are usually very strictly defined.

The Bass Drum/ Kick Drum

"The Beating heart of the drum kit" is an apt name for the bass-drum. It's the biggest drum in the whole kit, and it's operated by the drummer's foot (or feet), it's the big rotund thingamajig that sits right in front of the drummer, of which you probably thought it was just a support for the other drums. It comes in three basic variations, the single beater/single drum, the double-beater/single drum and the almighty double-beater/double drum (the last two are obviously operated by both feet)

If you've ever listened to music ( I recommend you do this, it's pretty cool actually), chances are, you've heard a bass drum in some form or mutation. The big and regular BOOM BOOM BOOM smacks on modern club hits? The machine-gun like rolls on Dimmu Borgir's latest release? All bass-drum baby.

And that's also pretty much a summary of the extremes of the bass-drums functions.

It is either used to accent each beat to drive the song on, in a 'walking' kind of way, or it gets into more complicated patterns with double-time and all that jazz ( which I'll definitely dive into some other time) to create a compelling and interesting beat. Of course on your average black metal release the drums have an extra function, namely to create a 'wall of sound'-like quality by basically having a non-stop bass-drum roll going on, which imparts a sense of blinding speed to the music.

The snare

If the bass-drum is the beating heart, then the snare is definitely the brains/head of the drum kit. It's the relatively small, unconvincing drum that's sitting right above the bass-drum, somewhere between the toms. Really, a snare and a bass-drum is all that you need to construct a beat, though it will probably be quite boring without the use of different cymbals (read about those below). If you like to drum on your table (I can suggest this, I do it all the time!), chances are, you've already made some sort of emulation of a snare. Let's start drumming now, make a fist with your right hand (that will be our bass-drum that's going to go boom), and use your left index finger to tap on the table (or better yet, the nail, for some hawt rimshot action!), and tap with me: Boom, tap, boom boom tap, boom, tap, boom boom, tap. Sounds familiar eh? That's cause it's probably the single most overused rock 'n roll rhythm in existence.

Now, if you would isolate the taps, and you know something about rhythm theory, you'd know that all the taps fall on the second and fourth beat of the measure, i.e., the off-beat. And THAT's the main function of the snare, by accenting the off-beat, you create a sort of tension, which is exactly what has driven on COUNTLESS of pop and rock hits. Of course, that's not everything you can do with the snare at all. The snare can be perfectly used for creating so-called "drum-fills", which I'll look into some other time.

What is interesting to know is the rimshot action I was talking about. While the snare usually is hit where it's supposed to be hit, by hitting on the very edge, you can get sort of a tick or click, which is perfect for your average prom-evening slow-dance ballad, or just to add an extra accent or ghost note somewhere, or whatever you want, just use your imagination.

The Hi-Hats

We're slowly moving on into cymbal territory, and on your left hand you can see a beautiful pair of Hi-hats. The Hi-hats are without a doubt the most often-used cymbals because of their recognizable timbre and relatively short decay times, which makes them apt for spicing up a beat without muddying it up. Hi-hats are basically two cymbals pressed onto each other, but by operating the foot-pedal, the drummer can increase the distance between them. So if he were to suddenly let go of the pedal, you'd get a 'clankingmetalthingiesclosing' kind of vibe, which is one of the ways of operating them. When they're open, and the drummer hits them, they go like TSSSS TSSS TSSSS TSSS, which is great as a sort of countdown ( I'm sure you've heard it before and you know what I mean). A very typical use of the open hi-hats is just splashing them over the BOOM tap BOOM BOOM tap-beat in a eighth-note pattern, which helps them to drive on the beat.

When the hi-hats are closed, they really go more like TF, or maybe even just T, which means a good drummer can play them really quickly without muddying everything up. Therefore, you can use the famous 'sixteenth beat', which is again the familiar BOOM tap pattern, except that on every quarter note, you get four TF TF TF TF's. That's very fast indeed, and imparts a greater sense of urgency than the open hi-hat pattern.

This was really just the most basic of hi-hat uses, I'll look deeper into how you can use them to impart different moods and accents in your beats later.

Crash, China & Splash Cymbals

These are generally not so much used for driving on a beat, but rather for placing accents on places where you want them. They are the BIG round yellow plates, that all kind of go CRASHHSSSSSSSsssssss, except the China sounds more like a Chinese gong, and the Splash sounds more like a..well, a splash. If you want a real sluggish beat though, try putting a crash on each quarter note, this makes it sound really slow and heavy (if you have the guitar riffage to back it up)

Generally, you'll want one of these (the crash usually) to hit at the same moment as an IMPORTANT note played by one of your instruments, thus placing extra emphasis on it. Another use for it is after an (instrumental) transition, you might want to use a crash at the very beginning of the measure to signify that something has changed.

Ride Cymbal

This is usually an even bigger plate than a crash cymbal, but it is usually played surprisingly soft, and it has a very distinct, almost bell-like timbre. It might be hard to recognize it, but it's generally used in place of an open hi-hat, when the hi-hat has become lame, and your drums need variation. There really can't be said much about it, it's basically an alternate hi-hat, though I've heard it can be used as a crash as well.

Tom Drums

Ah yes, there's nothing like some phat african beatz to spice up your boring drum tracks, and the toms do a perfect job of emulating those classic George of the Jungle vibes. They are the drums above, and next to the bass-drum, but they're not the snare, which leaves you with about three other drums (or more, if you're rich), that are probably the toms. They have a deep, resonant TOM TOM TOM-like sound, and they're usually pitched from high to low. A typical way of using a tom is having a triplet where you play them from high to low ( NEVER the other way around, it might invoke the implosion of the universe, toms are NOT meant to be played from low to high.), which works great as a drum fill, but is actually a pretty darn lame fill too.

Toms can be used in driving beats (I.E., Beats that drive the song on, not fills) as well, but their application here is very slippery, and there really are no set rules, nor commonly known extremely popular rhythms that everyone uses (not like the BOOM TAP obviously), that incorporate toms into driving beats.

Anyway, this was sort of a pilot-episode of my tutorial on rock drums, I hope you liked it, and if not, I'm sorry for wasting your time reading. I'm just sort of measuring how much interest there would be for this sort of article, and whether my writing is acceptable and readable. I know I kind of ventured into the very basics here, but if there's enough interest, I'll follow up with an Episode 2 about constructing your own Phat Rock Beatz, which will be a bit more advanced, and might be interesting for veteran remixers to read as well.

[The Legendary Zoltan]

This is so cool. I can't believe you mentioned Dimmu borgir. Hahaha. I've written probably more than 50 original songs, of which 90% contain drums. Just like you said, I too have never made them sound from low to high. But after reading this tutorial, I'm thinking, "Why, the hell, not make them go from low to high? It might be cool." I think I'll see what I can do about that in my Xenoremix. Hahaha.

[Tensei]

This is so cool. I can't believe you mentioned Dimmu borgir. Hahaha. I've written probably more than 50 original songs, of which 90% contain drums. Just like you said, I too have never made them sound from low to high. But after reading this tutorial, I'm thinking, "Why, the hell, not make them go from low to high? It might be cool." I think I'll see what I can do about that in my Xenoremix. Hahaha.

Yeah that was actually not meant to detract anyone from trying, it just occured to me that 90% of the time tom rolls are in triplets, and they're ALWAYS from high to low. =P

[SnappleMan]

Don't get discouraged, but this isn't really impressing me as far as what I think should be the focus of a drum tutorial. Teaching people your theory on beats will only make everyone sound more similar than they already do. Instead why not focus on proper mixing and the role of the drum kit within a song structure?

[Tensei]

Don't get discouraged, but this isn't really impressing me as far as what I think should be the focus of a drum tutorial. Teaching people your theory on beats will only make everyone sound more similar than they already do. Instead why not focus on proper mixing and the role of the drum kit within a song structure?

Well I really wanted to start just from the ground up, which is why I'll cover more advanced topics later on, and it's not like I'm going to say what kind of beats you should be using where, I'm just going to try and describe the functions of each drum component in the construction of a beat, and how you can utilize each of them best.

[SnappleMan]

It might be this delicious ice cream sandwich talking, but that seems like a decent enough idea. Good luck!

[Fishy]

Now, if you would isolate the taps, and you know something about rhythm theory, you'd know that all the taps fall on the second and fourth beat of the measure, i.e., the off-beat. And THAT's the main function of the snare, by accenting the off-beat, you create a sort of tension, which is exactly what has driven on COUNTLESS of pop and rock hits.

I know you're gonna expand on this but I did spot this one thing. Don't forget that this isn't the only rock style snare placement. Often they are on every beat with some kicks inbetween, which is quite common in punky or metal drums.

One example: Muse - Newborn

[Tensei]

I know you're gonna expand on this but I did spot this one thing. Don't forget that this isn't the only rock style snare placement. Often they are on every beat with some kicks inbetween, which is quite common in punky or metal drums.

One example: Muse - Newborn

You mean as in blast-beats?

[Lunahorum]

Yea blast beats have a really tight rhythm that repeats every beat instead of every 4 or 8 beats like normal. Like 1e&a on kicks, 1& snares, ea hihats. There are many variations.

[Tensei]

Part 2: Feelin Tha Beat

Well, now that I've properly introduced the whole drum kit, it's time to get down to more interesting business, the actual construction of beats. We'll start with the standard rock rhythm, move on to more complicated rock patterns (yes, including blast beats), talk about some metal, go into detail about drum fills, and finally deconstruct a drum solo.

I'll be using an unconventional, but hopefully easily understandable way of writing down the drum beats, so I don't have to resort to BOOM TAP TSSSS CRASHHHHHH-like drum impressions like last time, and since I have no idea where I can upload midis without getting deleted after 24 hours, I'm sure you can copy the things I write down into your drum machine/sequencer to listen for yourself.

The Feather that breaks the camels backbeat

Chuck Berry summed it up pretty nicely in his song 'Rock 'n Roll Music' by saying " You can't lose it, it's got a backbeat to it". What he meant to say by that, that as opposed to jazz, where the patterns can get very chaotic, in rock music, the snare will ALWAYS be sitting there on the off-beat, and the kick will ALWAYS be on the beat. Nowadays, things aren't so tightly defined, and of course you don't have to feel urged to do it like Chuck Berry when you're writing rock music.

But the most basic template for a rock beat is this:

(36 = Bass Drum, 38 = Snare)

I think NEARLY any rock beat that isn't from a prog rock song, or a blast beat, has had this basic structure as a template (Don't come whining to me about putting only one snare on the third beat, and bass drums on 1, 2, 4, we all know that that's called half-time, and that's in essence the same)

Of course, this pattern is way too boring, so we still need to spice it up with some hawt hi-hat action before it can be put into a song, and add some more interesting bass drum patterns. As a disclaimer, I'm not claiming this is the right way to construct a decent beat, nor that I'm suggesting you copy it ( In fact, write your own), this really is just an example of a relatively common rock pattern, and I'm showing how it comes to existence from the basic template.

(42 being a closed hi-hat, though an open one can work as well here)

What I've done here, is I've put a double-time hi-hat over our beat (so the hi-hat is played twice a beat, hence the double-time name), which adds an extra 'groove'( yes, even more vague descriptions), and drives on the backbeat, because it's such a continuous rhythm. The bass-drum pattern has been made interesting by adding double-time, but only at a few places, because we don't want to fill absolutely everything with bass-drums (sort of you how you don't! want! to! put! an! exclamation mark! behind every word or sentence, because it's power will be lost by overusing it, but yeah, metal drums are an exception to this analogy)

Now, this is really ALL I'm telling you about bass-drum placement, since I don't want everyone to sound the same as me, I'll only say that as a general rule of thumb, you'll want the bass-drum on the beat, and the snare off the beat, and for the rest just experiment with what sounds good.

HI-FIVE, DUDE

The influence of interesting hi-hat (and cymbal) patterns on a beat is one of the most underestimated aspects of beat construction at all. Generally, with EACH significant transition, you'll want another hi-hat pattern as well, possibly even a totally different beat (refer to what I said about bass-drum placement). Unfortunately for you, I'm going to have to present the subtleties of this in the context of a song of mine, because it really isn't too easy to explain without having an instrumental backing.

http://neutronstar.org/tensei/Bloody%20Tears%20Example.mid

The first part you hear:

35= Bass Drum

40= Snare

57= Crash Cymbal

Now notice how the Crash is on each beat, because it's such a big cymbal, you really can't do it much faster than that (no double-time) without muddying things up, but the result is this kind of placement (I.E. a BIG cymbal like a crash or china on each beat) helps to make the beat sound relatively slow and heavy, and works great for this sort of breakdowns.

The second part after the crazy strings with the drum fills is in fact real simple, as it ultimately descends to this:

(51= Ride Cymbal, 42= Closed Hi-hat)

The Ride Cymbal has the familiar pattern of being twice on each beat, which makes it drive the song forward without going overboard. Generally I refer to the ride, the splash and the open hi-hat as the Medium Cymbals, which can be played quite fast (I'd say twice on each beat), without muddying things up, but I wouldn't recommend them playing faster than that. Also of note is that while the strings play the same chords, the drums go smoothly from playing fills to a beat, which can really give a relatively repetitive pattern a feeling of moving forward.

After the transition we get into the part with the crazy bass, which is backed by a SIXTEENTH closed hi-hat pattern (the equivalent of quadruple time). As you can hear, this has the effect of giving it a sense of even more acceleration than the previous beat, and IMO it's great as a backing for a solo instrument.

So as a conclusion:

Big Cymbals: Never faster than once on each beat, gives a sense of heaviness, slowness, etc. Works great as a backing for slower parts, during so-called break-downs or during the chorus of a song.

Medium Cymbals: Never faster than twice on each beat, gives a sense of forward motion, works well in the verse parts of a mix.

Small Cymbals (pretty much closed hi-hat only): As fast as you want, though you should keep it real and within human capabilities, works great for parts where you want a fast solo backing, or give the impression that some FAST SHIT IZ GOIN DOWN.

Now as to the exact arrangement of the cymbals during a beat, I'll leave that up to you, I gave some general guidelines, and some examples, but I'm not going to hold your hand all the way obviously.

When Rock just isn't hard enough

So you think all this talk of Rock 'n Roll and shit is not for you? Are your walls plastered with Pantera-posters? Can't get enough of Slayers latest album?

Well, I guess I'll have to talk about some metal then. Metal drums are in fact similar to general rock drums, except that they're taken to the extreme. Metal drum kits can have upwards of 5 tom drums, 2 bass drums, and a shitload of different cymbals, which gives you uh, quite a lot of stuff to work with. Of course the cymbals can all be subdivided into the three main classes I described above, so that makes it a lot easier for you. But what the hell are you supposed to do with those two humongous bass-drums?

Well, let me start of by saying that while bass-drums are normally used to accent the beat, and determine the main feel and pattern of a beat, a double bass-drum is often used to totally fill-up the lower end of a bar by playing sixteenth notes. The way this is often used is to either intensify a repetitive instrumental pattern, where you for example first have a standard bass-drum pattern, and after two bars or so, the drummer starts thumping out sixteenth notes, which, again, gives a sense of forward movement.

Another application of this are bass-drum rolls, which are essentially drum fills, so I'll leave that for another time when I'll be discussing those.

Blast-off!

Now I'm not going to go into a metal subgenre discussion, but I'll just say that both Death Metal and hardcore punk are known for a drum application called a blast-beat. In essence, it's really an exaggeration of the basic rock and roll beat played in quadruple time (though even faster is possible as well!)

http://neutronstar.org/tensei/Hardcore%20Gerudo.mid

As you can hear, the blast beats used here make the song intense, agressive, and in-your-face (which exactly happen to be those qualities in Death Metal we all know and adore.)

(see next post due to image limit)

[Tensei]

(55= Splash Cymbal, 36= Bass Drum, 38= Snare)

This is the basic template for a blast-beat, a sixteenth note pattern alternating between a bass and a snare, backed by a simple cymbal/hi-hat pattern. It's not groovy, it doesn't put accents anywhere, but it has a charming 'wall of sound'-like quality which is exactly what makes it so agressive and in your face. Use with discretion.

Some other general guidelines on blastbeats are that since there is NO variation in the bass/snare pattern, you'll want to change the cymbal/hi-hat patterns a lot more often than usually to prevent them from getting stale. Also, I'm not entirely sure about whether the bass drum should be played in a constant 16th pattern, or whether it should stop when the snare plays, so maybe someone who actually CAN play the drums can clarify that for us.

Anyway, this is turning out longer than I expected, so I'll be covering drum fills, drum solo's, accenting and the like in the next update. Thanks for reading.

[Legion303]

Feel free to use this drum tablature. I post it every couple of years. Many of these patterns came from the community:

Trance:

   1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4
BD * - - - * - - - * - - - * - - -
SD - - - - * - - - - - - - * - - - (or Clap)
RC - - * - - - * - - - * - - - * -


Trance variations:

   1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4
BD * - - - * - - - * - - - * - - -
SD - - - - * - - - - - - - * - - - (or Clap)
CH * * - - * * - - * * - - * * - -
RC - - * - - - * - - - * - - - * -


Hiphop:

   1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4
BD * - - - - - - * - - * - - - - -
SD - - - - * - - - - - - - * - - -


Basic Drum n Bass (BPM approx. 160-200):

   1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4
BD * - - - - - - - - - * - - - - -
SD - - - * - - - - - - - * - - - -(or Clap)
CH * - * - * - * - * - * - * - * -
(play around with the hi-hats a lot more)


DnB variation:

(#=possibilities of adding)
      1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4
BD * - - - - - - - - - * - - - # -
SD - - - * - - # - # - - * - - - -(or Clap)
CH * - * - * - * - * * - * * * * - (altered pattern)


Funk patterns (BD=Bass, SD=Snare, CH=Closed Hat, CR=Crash):

                  |~~~~~~~~~~~repeat~~~~~~~~~~~~~~|
   1 & 2 & 3 & 4 & 1 & 2 & 3 & 4 & 1 & 2 & 3 & 4 &
BD - - - - * - - - * - - - - - - - * - - - # - - -
SD - - - - - * - * - - - - * - - * - * - - - - - *
CH - - - - - - * - - - * - - - * - - - * - - - * -
CR - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - # - - -


Funk variation 1:

                  |~~~~~~~~~~~repeat~~~~~~~~~~~~~~|
   1 & 2 & 3 & 4 & 1 & 2 & 3 & 4 & 1 & 2 & 3 & 4 &
BD - - - - * - - - * - - - - - - - * - - - * - - -
SD - - - - - * - * - - - - * - - * - * - - - * - *
CH - - - - - - * - - - * - - - * - - - * - - - * -


Funk variation 2 (RC=Ride, HD=Hat down):

                  |~~~~~~~~~~~repeat~~~~~~~~~~~~~~|
   1 & 2 & 3 & 4 & 1 & 2 & 3 & 4 & 1 & 2 & 3 & 4 &
BD - - - - * - - - * - - - - - - - * - - - * - - -
SD - - - - - * - * - - - - * - - * - * - - - * - *
RC - - - - - - * - - - * - - - * - - - * - - - * -
HD - - - - - - - - * - * - * - * - * - * - * - * -


Punk:

   1 & 2 & 3 & 4 & 1 & 2 & 3 & 4 &   

BD * - - - * * - * - * - - * * - *
SD - - * - - - * - - - * - - - * -
CH - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - **
OH * - * - * - * - * - * - * - * -


Breakbeat:

   1 e & a 2 e & a 3 e & a 4 e & a 1 e & a 2 e & a 3 e & a 4 e & a
BD * - * - - - * - * - * - - - * - * - * - - - - - * - * - * - * -
SD - - - - * - - - - * - - * * - - - * - - * * - * - * - - * * - *
CL * - * - * - - - * - * - * * - * * - * - * - * - * - * - * - - -
OH - - - - - - * - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - * -


Samba:

   1 & 2 & 3 & 4 & 1 & 2 & 3 & 4 & 
BD * - - * * - - * * - - * * - - *
SD * - - * - - * - * - * - - * - -
HD - - * - - - * - - - * - - - * -
RC * - - * - - * - * - * - - * - -


Samba variation 1:

   1 & 2 & 3 & 4 & 1 & 2 & 3 & 4 & 
BD * - - * * - - * * - - * * - - *
SD - * - - * - * - * - * - - * - *
HD - - * - - - * - - - * - - - * -
RC - * - - * - * - * - * - - * - *


Songo:

   1 & 2 & 3 & 4 & 1 & 2 & 3 & 4 &
BD - - - * - - * - - - - * - - * -
SD - * - * - * - * - * - * - * - *
HD - - * - - - - - - - * - - - - -
RC * - * - * - * - * - * - * - * -


Songo variation 1:

   1 & 2 & 3 & 4 & 1 & 2 & 3 & 4 &
BD - - - * - - * - - - - * - - * -
SD - - * * - - * * - - * * - - * *
HD - - * - - - - - - - * - - - - -
RC * * - - * * - - * * - - * * - -


Speed metal:

   1 e & a 2 e & a 3 e & a 4 e & a
BD - - * - - - * * - - * - - - * *
SD * - - - * - - - * - - - * - - -
RC * - - - * - - - * - - - * - - -


Trip-hop 1 (Prodigy's "Breathe"):

   1 e & a 2 e & a 3 e & a 4 e & a
BD * - * - - - - * - - * - - - - *
SD - * - - * - - - - * - - * - - -
HD * - * - * - * - * - * - * - * -


Trip-hop 2 (Prodigy's "Firestarter"):

   1 e & a 2 e & a 3 e & a 4 e & a 1 e & a 2 e & a 3 e & a 4 e & a
BD * - - - - - - - - - - - - - * - * - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
SD - - - - * - - * - * - - * - - - - - - - * - - * - * - - * - - *
HD - - * - * - * - * - * - * - * - - - * - * - * - * - * - * - * -
OH * - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - * - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -


Hip-hop 3 (Beastie Boys' "Intergalactic"):

   1 e & a 2 e & a 3 e & a 4 e & a
BD * - - - - - - - * - * - - - * -
SD - - - - * - - * - * - - * - - -
CH * - * - * - * - * - * - * - * -


Hip-hop 4 (Dr. Dre):

   1 e & a 2 e & a 3 e & a 4 e & a
BD * - - - - * - - * - - - - - - -
SD - - - - * - - - - - - - * - - -
CH - - * - - - * - - - * - - - * -
OH * - - - * - - - * - - - * - - -

You might notice that "BD," "SD," etc. are easier to follow than what look like MIDI channel numbers.

(At least for me, they are.)

I'll host your MIDIs if you want. PM me for email address. I don't think the one on my profile is up-to-date.

-steve

[Lunahorum]

what do the symbols mean? I know bd and sd, but what are hd, oh, and everything else? thanks.

Hey were those pictures made in guitar pro?

[suzumebachi]

BD = bass drum

SD = snare drum

CH = closed hi-hat

OH = open hi-hat

HD = i'm assuming is hat down (ie: when you press the hi-hat pedal)

RC = ride cymbal

CR = crash cymbal

CL = ??? cowbell?

[Tensei]

CL = ??? cowbell?

Clap (me thinks)

[The Legendary Zoltan]

Tensei, I really hate to do this on your bad ass drum tutorial, but I think you got blast beats all wrong. I live in Japan and everybody calls everything something else out here, but I'm pretty sure that a blast beat is when you hit the bass drum, snare drum, and a cymbal all at the same time in rapid succession.

Watch as I go into detail:

In the pattern you've got: (S=snare, B=bass, C=cymbal)

C---C---C---C---C---C---C---C---

--S---S---S---S---S---S---S---S-

B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-

There are cymbals on the down beats and snares on the ups. If you think about it deeply, I think you'll notice that this is just like all those basic rock beats you've been talking about, except it's a lot faster and there's double bass added. An actual Blast Beat hits all three of these things at the same time: On the down AND up beats. So it should look like this.

C-C-C-C-C-C-C-C-C-C-C-C-C-C-C-C-

S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-

B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-

Now, I don't know if they could actually play it at the speed of this song, but that's a Blast Beat. And I'm pretty sure that if you make any variations to the rhythm of anything, it is no longer a Blast Beat. The only way to vary it is to change the cymbal you're hitting. It seems most commonly to me to be the ride cymbal, but I don't have the scientific data to back that up. And I'm sorry that I don't have an audio file to give an example. Anyway, I've done my good deed for the day. Nice Tutorial, man. I, too, am looking forward to the production values section of this tutorial cause I'm such a n00b at it. Hahaha.

[Tensei]

Tensei, I really hate to do this on your bad ass drum tutorial, but I think you got blast beats all wrong. I live in Japan and everybody calls everything something else out here, but I'm pretty sure that a blast beat is when you hit the bass drum, snare drum, and a cymbal all at the same time in rapid succession.

Watch as I go into detail:

In the pattern you've got: (S=snare, B=bass, C=cymbal)

C---C---C---C---C---C---C---C---

--S---S---S---S---S---S---S---S-

B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-

There are cymbals on the down beats and snares on the ups. If you think about it deeply, I think you'll notice that this is just like all those basic rock beats you've been talking about, except it's a lot faster and there's double bass added. An actual Blast Beat hits all three of these things at the same time: On the down AND up beats. So it should look like this.

C-C-C-C-C-C-C-C-C-C-C-C-C-C-C-C-

S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-

B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-

Now, I don't know if they could actually play it at the speed of this song, but that's a Blast Beat. And I'm pretty sure that if you make any variations to the rhythm of anything, it is no longer a Blast Beat. The only way to vary it is to change the cymbal you're hitting. It seems most commonly to me to be the ride cymbal, but I don't have the scientific data to back that up. And I'm sorry that I don't have an audio file to give an example. Anyway, I've done my good deed for the day. Nice Tutorial, man. I, too, am looking forward to the production values section of this tutorial cause I'm such a n00b at it. Hahaha.

I'm pretty sure what you did is just a possible variation on it, and the bass-drum can be played at double the speed of the cymbal and the snare, and wikipedia agrees with me on it =P

Really, when I think of the word blast-beat I hear this:

--S---S---S---S---S---S---S---S-
B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-

[The Legendary Zoltan]

Really? Wikpedia agrees? No way! But still, but it's so similar to the regular rock beat with added double bass.

[Dyne]

Wikipedia? Link or it didn't happen!

[Wiesty]

Best way to really know how to sequence drums is to know how to play them and what works well. You have the experience that way, and you're less likely to do things which sound less realistic.

[Tensei]

Best way to really know how to sequence drums is to know how to play them and what works well. You have the experience that way, and you're less likely to do things which sound less realistic.

Unfortunately, not everybody (including me) has had a chance to start playing them since a whole drum kit tends to be quite "up there" in the price range (including cymbals and stuff), and if you can't spend the money to isolate your room properly you won't even be able to play them that much (if you're not an ass that is). So basically there's really no point in you telling this, you're not really helping at all.

[Wiesty]

Thats funny. Because i learned drums by buying a pair of sticks and teaching my self rudiments on my mousepad. From there i basically just read tabs and played drums anywhere I had the chance. I myself don't own a drumkit.

[Tensei]

Thats funny. Because i learned drums by buying a pair of sticks and teaching my self rudiments on my mousepad. From there i basically just read tabs and played drums anywhere I had the chance. I myself don't own a drumkit.

Well that's not how you said it. What you basically did was say "Well if you want to learn to write good drum patterns you have to start playing drums", which is kind of obvious, thus redundant. =/