Composing a drum beat and contrast in pop song structure

Hi, I'm Dr. Southall, and I'm gonna be teaching you this unit, which is an introduction to pop music. Let's begin. In this lesson, we're going to compose a drum beat and develop musical ideas within a pop song structure. There's three key terms for the lesson. The first is backbeat, the emphasis of beats two and four in a drum groove, usually on the snare drum. The second is quaver, which is a note lasting half a beat, and the third is verse and chorus, the two main repeated sections in a song; the verse and chorus structure is the term used to describe the structure of a pop song. There's two parts to this lesson. The first is composing an idiomatic drum beat. The drum kit plays an important role in the rhythm section of a pop band. The drummer helps maintain the tempo and provide rhythmic drive. All drum grooves in a pop song work around the same fundamental characteristics. Let's watch a clip, and I want you to decide what parts of the drum kit are used the most in the groove. (rhythmic drum beat) Drum grooves use the following parts of the kit: the kick drum, snare drum, and hi-hat. Here's the high-hat, here's the snare, and here is the kick drum. What is each part of the kit playing in this drum groove? (rhythmic drum beat) Almost all pop drum grooves work around these main characteristics. Kick plays on beats one and three, snare plays the backbeats on beats two and four, and the hi-hat plays quavers throughout the bar. Here's an example and the sort of notation you can expect when reading for drum music. Here's the hi-hat, the snare, and the kick drum. Drum patterns can also be notated in rhythm grids. The stave and grid show the same drum pattern. Here's an example, transposed into a rhythm grid. Perform this beat using body percussion to get the feel of each part. And we're gonna put this in a rhythm grid for you. So you'll see that the hi-hat is working in quavers, the snare is on beats two and four, and the kick drum is on beat one and three, and then we're gonna do two quavers on beat three. So assuming this beat is like this: one, two, three, four, one, two, three, four, the hi-hat is gonna be quavers like this. (Dr. Southall imitating drum beats) The snare is gonna be on beats two and four. (Dr. Southall clapping rhythmically) and the kick drum will stamp on beats one and three as two quavers. One, two, three, four, one, two, three, four, (clapping) one, two, three, four, one, two, three, four. What are the similarities and differences with the following three drum beats. Now this might feel a little overwhelming, but if you take it in sections, you can see the hi-hat right at the top of the stave. And then underneath we have the kick drum and snare rhythms. So if we look at those three pieces, you'll see that the hi-hat rhythm is the same for all three. The snare rhythm is the same for all three, but the kick drum pattern is different for all three. Let's take a closer look at that. So most importantly, the snare drum plays the backbeat in every groove, which is what we mentioned, and the hi-hat pattern is also the same, playing consistent quavers. Now let's see what that looks like on that notation. So this was the notation, here are the snare parts, and here are the hi-hat parts. And you can see those hi-hat parts are playing consistent quavers in the top line, the middle line, and the bottom line. And similarly, the snare is two crotchets in all three sections. And the kick drum is the same for the first beat, but there is a variation on beat three. But despite there being a variation, we're still mainly playing on beats one and beat three on the kick drum. Let's watch a recording of creating a typical pop drumbeat in a DAW, or DAW. And then secondly, using notation software. Hello, and welcome to this tutorial on how to make a backbeat on a DAW. Your DAW might look a little bit different to mine, but it should still work the same. So first of all, I've got a drum track open. I've chosen GarageBand's SoCal Kit, and I have a keyboard in front of me. So first of all, we're gonna play the kick and snare of our back beat, which are usually keys C and D, lower down in the keyboard. (rhythmic beat) So, first of all, we're gonna do one bar. So I'm gonna hit Record, and then play in the snare and kick drum. (rhythmic beat) Now we've only done this for one bar because then we're just gonna loop it afterwards. So now that we've got a kick and snare, we're gonna add in the hi-hats, which can normally be found on F sharp, lower down the keyboard. (metronome ticking) (rhythmic drum beat) Great, so now we've recorded our backbeats, but the problem is it's a little bit out of time. So what we're gonna do is we're gonna double-click on the drag, and we're gonna go in and quantize these notes. So if I click and drag everything, you might find that your DAW has already done this for you, which is great, but if not, you're then gonna go down to one 1/8 note, and you'll see that all the notes snap into place. So now if I listen to this. (rhythmic drum beat) it's perfectly in time. So what I'm gonna do is just loop this for as long as I want, and there we have our backbeat. (rhythmic drum beat) Alternatively, if you don't have a keyboard in front of you, you can just write the notes in. So we're gonna Command-click on this track, and that creates one bar of an empty region, and then we're gonna double-click on that region to bring it up in the editor. Next thing we're gonna do is go and find where our kicks are. Normally, as I said, they're on C1 on a keyboard. (rhythmic beat) And next we're gonna find the snares. (rhythmic beat) Cool, that's D1 in this keyboard. So now holding down Control, we're gonna put notes in the right places, so they're gonna be on each beat, kick, snare, kick, snare, like this. (rhythmic beat) And just fix that one. Great, now that we've got our kick and snare, and we just need to add the hi-hat, which again, we can find, and it happens to be F sharp on this keyboard. So we're now gonna Control-click, and then click the F sharp every 1/8 note. (rhythmic beat) Great, now you have your manually created backbeat, so we can just loop this now. And it works the same as if we were to do the process that we did before. (rhythmic drum beat) Hello, I'm gonna show you how to make a simple backbeat on notation software. Your notation software might look a little bit different to mine, but fundamentally it'll still have the same functions. So first things first, I've got a file and I've called it "Backbeat," and I have a drum kit as the instrument. So what we're gonna do first is just make some notes. We're gonna start off with the kick drum, and just put one here, and one here on beats one and three. Now we're gonna make our backbeat in one bar, and then just copy it across to the other four bars. Now for the snare. Now we can do the snare in a couple of different ways, but the one that we're gonna choose is nice and easy to look at. So we are going to get our snare, and then we are going to change it to Voice Number Two. You see how the minute it's this blue one, we're gonna change it to the green two, and that's gonna mean (beat sounds) that it's on the same voice as our kick drum, but the stems are going up, so to fix that, we're going to click X on the note, the key X on the keyboard. So then you should have this: (rhythmic beat) Now we're just gonna add in our hi-hats. So, hi-hats normally on a backbeat are going to be quavers. So we're gonna choose a quaver note, and we're gonna go to our closed hi-hat, and then just fill in. (hi-hats clicking) a bunch of hi-hats. And then if we want to make this pattern go on longer, we can just copy and paste it. And here we have our backbeat. (rhythmic drum beat) Time for a check for understanding. Which of the following staves includes the notation symbol for the hi-hat? Is it A, B, or C? The answer is C. Which of the following includes a backbeat? There are three clips to listen to. Pause the video and listen to each clip in turn. The answer is B. Well done. Match the part of the drum kit with their main role in the drum groove: Well, the kick does beats one and three, the hi-hat plays quavers, and the snare plays backbeats or the beats two and four. Time for some practice. I want you to record an idiomatic drum pattern using a DAW or notation software. Your success criteria is that you should kick on beats one and three, use snare on beats two and four. Your hi-hat should play quavers throughout the bar, use a metronome and quantize to 1/8. And use the examples as a guide to develop the kick pattern. Pause the video and have a go. How does this drum beat meet the success criteria? Well, in your response, you may have said something like: The kick plays on beats one and three, the snare plays a backbeat on beats two and four, and the hi-hat plays quavers throughout the bar. The kick pattern could have been developed to add interest. What can be done to improve this drum groove? Let's watch the clip. (keyboard beeps) (melodic music) Well, you may have said the metronome was not used, so the beat is out of time. The pattern starts with the snare on the first beat instead of on the backbeat. Part two, contrasting ideas in a pop song structure. Combining your initial ideas for a riff, chord sequence, bass line and drumbeat completes the rhythm section parts of a pop song. To develop this and build to a complete song, we need to consider the overall structure. Most pop songs have two main sections, a verse and a chorus. We can repeat ideas between sections, but it's also useful to have contrast too. What are the similarities and differences between the verse and the chorus sections in this pop song? Consider the instrumentation, tempo and meter, the melody, chord sequence and drum groove. Listen to the verse first, then the chorus, and compare. Pause the video and listen to the clips. Most songs will have more similarities than differences between the sections. In this example, the main instrumentation is the same. There's male vocals, piano, bass guitar, and drum kit. The tempo is fast, and there are four beats in the bar. In pop songs, it's very common for the tempo and time signature to stay the same throughout. Importantly, the musical ideas were different in each section, helping to distinguish between the two. The main differences included, and you may have got these yourself: a different melody, a slightly different chord sequence and bass line, and a tambourine was added to the backbeat. The drum beat is usually very similar in both sections. Finding the balance between unity and variety in our musical ideas is also important. In this example, the chorus sounds more uplifting than the verse, but the musical ideas still have some similarities. What similarities do the chords and bass line have that give continuity to the sections? And consider the notes in the rhythm. Pause the video and listen to the verse first, and then the chorus. Although the chorus is louder and has more instruments, the chords and bass line are still based on the same notes and rhythmic patterns. The verse and chorus share most of the same chords and the rhythmic pattern, constant quavers, is the same, even though the order of the notes is different. If we look at them side by side, you can see that they share the same chords. The A minor is present in both, F is present in both, and G is present in both. When developing a new section, the process of composing is still the same. We have a riff, chords, bass line, and drumbeat. Let's watch a clip of recording a riff and a chord sequence, followed by a clip of adding a bass line and drum groove to your riff and chords. As you can see on the left hand side, I have selected a guitar sound for the riff and a piano sound for the chords. I've written in my notes section, the notes for my riff. I had the notes C, D, E, G, A to choose from, but I decided after some experimentation that G, D, E, D was gonna be my riff, and it sounds like this: (melodic music) And I've got my chords, C major, D minor, A minor, and F. So, I am going to head over to my guitar riff sound, hit record and record the riff in. (metronome clicking) (melodic music) Now, because I am looping this riff throughout the whole track, I'm only gonna record it twice, and I'm gonna loop it over there. I'm gonna get into my piano roll, and I'm going to quantize my riff. Here's how it sounds quantized. (melodic music) That's perfect. And now it's time to record my chord. So as I said, I'm playing C, D, A minor, and F, and I'm going to use that broken chord style. So instead of playing block chords like this. (bright music) I'm going to do the clock's broken chords pattern like this. (melodic music) And so here is the recording of the piano. So I'm making sure my piano track is selected, just double checking my metronome is on, and then I'm gonna press Record. (metronome ticking) (melodic music) And I am just gonna quickly go into my piano roll and quantize my piano track as well, and then go back, put the play head back to bar one, and just hear how that sounds. (melodic music continues) Nice, that sounds good to me. So that was the riff and chords recorded. I hope you enjoyed it. Now I've got my riff and chords recorded. I can move on to the bass line and drums. To record my bass line, I'm going to add a new software instrument, and I'm going to select a bass sound. I'm gonna use the first one there. I'm gonna make sure that I'm in the right octave on my piano keyboard. (notes sound) And I am just playing the root notes at the moment. I think what I might do is add a little bit of syncopation and maybe passing notes at the end in between the A and the F. So I'm gonna give that a go and record that now. (metronome ticking) (melodic music) And I'm just gonna go in and quantize by selecting all of the notes and hitting the Q button. And then I'm gonna add my drums. So let's do that, I'm adding a new track. I'm gonna get the SoCal drum kit, head over to the Step Sequencer, and I'm gonna get a nice snare on the backbeat two and the four, hi-hats every other. And then I might do a double kick. So let's see how this sounds. (melodic music continues) I'm also just looking for an open hi-hat for that last beat, so let's just see what that new edition sounds like. (melodic music continues) Nice. That's really come together. So there is the bass line and drums added, and now I can move on to the next part of the lesson. Remember that chord sequences and riffs should share common notes, and the bass line must outline the root notes of each chord. Finally, the drum groove must accent beats two and four. Time for a check for understanding. Which two of the following should be different in the verse and chorus sections of a pop song? Melody, chord sequence, or drum kit? Choose two. It's melody and chord sequence. Well done. Which two of the following help us to keep continuity in the musical ideas of the verse and chorus? Keep the instruments exactly the same, use the same rhythmic ideas, or use some of the same chords. Choose two again The answer was B and C. Use the same rhythmic ideas and use some of the same chords. Time for your final task for today's lesson. Compose initial ideas, or complete your existing ideas, for a section in a pop song that includes a riff, chord sequence, bass line and drum beat. To be successful, you need to do these four things: Have a one or two-bar melodic riff, a four or eight-bar long chord sequence with up to four chords, a bass line based on chord root notes, and a drum beat with a snare or clap backbeat on beats two and four. Pause the video and start your composition. How does this example match the success criteria and what could be improved? (melodic music) (metronome ticking) Well, you may have included some phrases like this: There is a repeated melodic riff. It's four bars long. The chord sequence only uses three chords. The bass line uses the root notes of the chord, and the drum groove includes quaver hi-hats, backbeat on the snare, and kick on beats one and three. But it could be improved because the bass sound was selected for all parts, including riff and chords, and the riff rhythm is very simple. This could be because it has been quantized incorrectly to a crotchet rhythm. Let's summarize the key points for today. The drummer's main role in the rhythm section is to establish the tempo and rhythmic groove. They typically play a backbeat on the snare, beats one and three on the kick and quavers on the hi-hat. Combining a riff with chords, a bass line and a drum beat can create the accompanying parts to a pop song. A pop song has two main sections, a verse and a chorus. It's important that they have both similarities and contrasting ideas. I hope you've enjoyed your composition today. I look forward to seeing you next time. Goodbye.