étude no.2 – ‘the money beat makeover’

This is a GREAT way to really strengthen your understanding of rhythm and beats. You may also find that it provides a great starting point for this week’s weekly composition demo 🙂

Upload a quick bounce of your ‘money beat makeover’ below, along with any text you write along the way

The goal is that I could create your beat perfectly just by reading the comment

Step 1: Complete this Beats micro course at learningmusic.ableton.com

Step 2: Make ‘The Money Beat’ In ‘The Playground’

Watch this video of Adrian Young (the drummer in No Doubt) nailing the simple backbeat commonly known as ‘The Money Beat’
No watch this video explainig the money beat
Go to learningmusic.ableton.com/the-playground and create the money beat using the online drums (remember that the ‘playground’ grid is two bars/measures long, and divided into 1/16th-notes)
use the kick, snare and (closed) hi-hat only

eplain what you just did

Create a new Word or Pages document
Explain, in words, how the ‘money beat’ is made, using appropriate terminology:
– 1/4-notes (beats), 1/8-notes and 1/16th notes
– Rests (when a regular note doesn’t play)
– Downbeat (the first beat of the bar)
– Upbeat (the last beat of the bar)
– Offbeat (the 1/8th note that’s not ‘on the beat’)
Save this – you will come back to it later (below)

Step 3: Give Your Playground Beat A Makeover

Try moving some of the kick, snare and hat notes earlier or later until you find something that sounds good
Try adding additional kick, snare or hat notes
Try muting kick, snare or hat notes (i.e. adding ‘rests)
Add one or two extra parts to the beat using any of the additional instruments available on the drum kit in the playground

now explain what you just did

Take the Word or Pages document from the previous step (above)
Explain, what was moved, what was deleted, and what was added, using the same appropriate terminology (above)
Save this – you will come back to it later (below)

Step 4: Programme your beat

Open Logic, Ableton or GarageBand and create a new drum instrument
(use any stock drum kit/rack/instrument of your choice)
Try to recreate the 2-bar beat that you just created (above)

Step 5: Add Call & Respons

Duplicate the 2-bar region/clip to create a 4-bar pattern
In the repeated phrase, add/delete or move notes to create variation between the first phrase (bars 1-2) and the second phrase (bars 3-4)
Congratulations, you’ve just created ‘call & response’!

now explain what you just did

Take the Word or Pages document from the previous step (above)
Explain that the initial 2-bar phrase was duplicated to create a 4-bar phrase
Then explain what was moved, what was deleted, and what was added, using the same appropriate terminology (above)
Explain why variation was added in the second phrase (to create ‘call & response

Step 6: Extend Your Beat

Duplicate the 4-bar phrase (above) and create variation in the second repetition to create two 4-bar phrases (again, with more call & response). Call these ‘A’ and ‘B’
Duplicate this 8-bar ‘AB’ phrase a final time to create a 16-bar pattern, consisting of four 4-bar phrases (ABAB)
Finally, add some variation just at the end of the final 4-bar phrase
(you may notice that at the end of a 16-bar drum pattern, you can really cut loose and do something quite showy/flambuoyant). This is known as a ‘fill’ – something drummers often do to grab the attention of the listener in preperation for the next 16-bar cycle/section
Congratulations, you’ve just created the ‘holy grail’ of musical variation, a technique used by countless composers/producers to keep musical parts more interesting: the ABAC method

now explain what you just did

Take the Word or Pages document from the previous step (above)
Explain that the initial 4-bar phrase was duplicated to create an answering 4-bar phrase (AB)
Then explain that this was again repeated to create a 16-bar pattern (ABAC)

Step 7: Create Contrasting Sections

By this stage, your creative brain may well be imagining additional parts that could be added or changed
Duplicate the 16-bar pattern above, calling the first ‘Section 1’ and the second ‘Section 2’
It’s common for a drummer to create CONTRAST between musical sections to get them to stand out from one another (e.g. between a Verse and a Chorus). One way they might do this is by changing the sound of the beat by taking the pattern played on the hi-hat and playing it instead on the Ride cymbal
Another way you can add variation and contrast between musical sections is by adding additional notes/rhythmic parts in different sections
Finally, you might want to consider adding a new sound to the beat to really get a musical section to stand out from the last e.g. adding a cowbell to the beat

as always, now explain what you just did

Take the Word or Pages document from the previous step (above)
Explain that the initial 4-bar phrase was duplicated to create an 8-bar phrase (etc.)
Then explain what was moved, what was deleted, and what was added, using the same appropriate terminology (above)