Learn To Make Beats - Drum Patterns

Drum patterns are the back bone of any beat makers creations. Without a drum beat, there is no "beat" of course, but I think of it more as there is no heartbeat, no life.

if you have a good sense of timing, you can record a drum pattern very quickly using almost any modern hardware or software DA.

Making drum patterns with a software DAW is very easy if you use a program with a drum pattern editor or step sequencer. This is a mode where you have blocks that turned on or off for various drum sounds.

Consider a pattern that contains 16 steps or "squares". This would represent 1 bar of time in a song.

The key thing to remember is that you always place your snare drums and claps on the 5th and 13th square. Of course all generalities can be broken, but let's start off this beat making simply.

Kick drums should always hit on the 1 and can be placed between the snares wherever it sounds good to you. Experiment and have fun making beats.

Hi-hats, particularly "closed" hi-hats can be busy and placed on every other step or sparse. Again, experiment and see what sounds good to you. beat making should not be too boring or you will lose the inspiration and motivation to continue.

Once you have the Kick, Snare and Hi-Hat you will have a basic drum beat that can be built on and around with other musical elements. You now have the back bone!

When making beats, most people I have spoken to start off this way.

Try adding congas or shakers to your beats to make them come alive.

Once your beat has a nice groove, imagine what other sounds would be like in this beat, if you can "hear" other parts, then you are on to something and go with it. Beta makers call this the zone and we all want to be in there as much as possible.

Good Luck!