Creating variation to a fundamental drum groove

Hello, my name is Mrs. Tipping and I'm really looking forward to learning with you today all about "Creating variation to a fundamental drum groove." We're going to do lots of thinking, talking, and exploring together in this lesson. So, shall we get started? Let's go. By the end of today's lesson, you'll be able to alter a fundamental groove to create variation as the music develops. Before we start, I would like to introduce you to some keywords. We'll be using these keywords during the lesson, so it might be a good idea to write these words down. The keywords we'll be using today are crash cymbal. Phrase. Rhythm. I'm going to say those again and I'd like you to repeat them after me. Crash cymbal. Phrase. Rhythm. Good work. Now, let's think in more detail about what these keywords mean by taking a look at their definitions. A crash cymbal is a medium to large-sized cymbal used for dramatic effect on the drum kit. A phrase is a section of a piece of music, often two or four-bars long. And a rhythm is a selection of long and short note durations in a pattern. All drum grooves have a rhythm. Pause the video here to make a note of these keywords, and when you're ready to continue, press play. These are the learning cycles that we'll be working through together in today's lesson. Understanding variation in a drum groove and Creating variation in a groove. So, in this first learning cycle, we're going to have a look at understanding variation in a drum groove. Finding a balance between repetition and contrast is crucial when writing music. Repetition makes music memorable and catchy, but some contrast creates interest. Too much contrast can sound chaotic. How might we create small variations in a drum groove? Pause the video here and have a discussion with your partner and press play when you are ready to continue. How could we create those small variations? Well, we could change the instrument. The quavers on the hi-hat change to the crash cymbal. Why might the crash cymbal be a good choice to be used in a song's chorus? Pause the video here and have a discussion with your partner and press play when you are ready to continue. You could also alter the main groove. Listen to this here. The rhythm of the drum groove changes when we hear the words, "Is it coming." This helps introduce a new section. Which part of the drum kit plays on every beat when this happens? Pause the video here and give yourself a moment to think and press play when you are ready to continue. We could also add extra sounds. Listen to these here. Two claps have been added at the end of the phrase. This helps to mark out the phrases in the music and create some structure to our listening. Now, let's take a look at this video here of how to add claps to the electronic drum groove. The last part to add to this electronic drum groove is the clap track. Let's have a listen to this drum track on its own by hitting the Solo button and see if we can pick out where the claps come in this groove. Listen carefully. (drum groove music) (drum groove music continues) So hopefully there, you noticed that the claps came at the end of bar eight, so just before bar nine, and then again at the end of bar 16. So it's the end of every eight bars, I'm going to be recording those claps in. And the rhythm is a slightly off-beat rhythm. So the claps are playing halfway through beat four and halfway through beat three. One, two, three, and four and. So it's on the and of three and the and of four. So, once I've identified that, then I need to select my claps track and we've got to find the clap sound on this instrument. (clap music) It's usually somewhere near the snare sound. I know my snare is here. (snare music) So the clap is just next to it. Rather than waiting when I'm recording for all this to play through, I'm gonna start the recording just before where I want the claps to come. So let's have one last listen. Try and identify where those claps are. (drum groove music) So once I've identified that, I'm gonna select my claps track. And what I'm gonna do when I'm recording is I'm actually gonna keep that original drum track on as well so I can make sure I'm recording my claps at the same time as the original claps. I've got my metronome on. Found my clap sounds. (claps ringing) And I'm gonna record in those two notes. (drum groove music) Let's just have a listen and check that the claps here match the claps from this original. (drum groove music) I'm happy with that. Now I'm gonna listen to just my drum sounds together. I'm gonna turn off the original drum track and check that that sounds the same as the original. (drum groove music) I'm pretty happy with that, although I could also quantize it again to an eighth note (musical note ringing) just to make it absolutely perfectly in time. And then I also want to make sure that it repeats every eight bars. So what I can do is right click and copy and paste it so that it repeats in bar 16, bar 24, and then in bar 32 as well. And now my drum track exactly matches the rhythms and the timbres of the original drum track. So we can see there are steps. First, we select the empty claps track, and find the clap sound on the instrument, and record the two claps in bar eight, making sure that the rhythm matches the claps in the original drum beat. Let's take a moment to pause and check our understanding. Why is a balance of repetition and contrast important in music? Pause the video here and have a discussion with your partner and press play when you are ready to continue. What did you think? If you said something like, repetition makes the music memorable and catchy, and contrast creates interest, you're right. Well done. And which three of the following can be used to create variation in a drum groove? Add extra sounds. Change the instruments. Change the tempo. Alter the rhythm. Pause the video here and give yourself a moment to think and press play when you're ready to continue. If you said add extra sounds, change the instruments, and alter the rhythm, you're right. Well done. And how does the drum groove change between these two sections of the same song? Play one and then play two. There are additional rhythms. The snare pattern alters. The repeated pattern moves to different cymbals. Pause the video here and give yourself a moment to think about how the drum groove changes between these two sections of the same song, and press play when you are ready to continue. If you said there are additional rhythms and the repeated pattern moves to different cymbals, you're right. Well done. This brings us to our first learning task. I'd like you to play and record the two claps into your project. The success criteria is to make sure that you have selected the claps track. After pressing record, you wait for bar eight. Play the two claps into bar eight and after beat three and beat four. And then you need to copy the recorded claps so that they repeat in bar 16, 24, and 32. So pause the video here and make sure you give yourself enough time to have a go at this learning task and press play when you are ready to continue. How did you get on? Well, let's have a look at this here. One of these clap tracks has been recorded incorrectly. Which one is incorrect, and what is incorrect about it? Listen to Example A and Example B now. (drum groove music) (drum groove music) Which one did you think? Well, Example B is incorrect. It has two claps in bar eight but they are clapped on beat three and four, rather than after beat three and four. So well done if you were able to identify that. This now brings us to the second part of our lesson. We're going to be creating variation in a groove. Songwriters create variation in a groove by changing the instruments, altering the rhythm, and adding extra sounds. This can work well at the end of the phrase, as it helps transition to the next section. In our electronic drum groove, the claps are added at the end of the phrase. What changes to the instruments and rhythms have you heard in the other grooves you have listened to? Pause the video here and have a discussion with your peers and press play when you are ready to continue. Maybe you could hear changing the timbre. There are many different ways that we can create variation by changing the timbre. All I'm gonna do here is I'm gonna take the rhythms that I've already recorded and move them onto different parts of the drum kit to create some variation. What I'd like to do here is stick with my original groove for the first 16 bars but then have it change at bar 17 so the second half has some variation. So what I'm gonna do here is I'm gonna take my kick and snare and hi-hat tracks and unloop them so that they finish at bar 17. Then I'm gonna right click, copy both of them, and paste them so that they start again separately at bar 17. So they are separate regions that I can click on separately like that. That means when I change something in one of them, it won't change what already happens earlier on. So the first thing I'm gonna look at doing is putting the hi-hat pattern into a different cymbal, onto a different cymbal. So, if I double click on my hi-hat region, it brings up my hi-hat quavers here. And what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna try and find a different cymbal on the drum kit that will create a little bit of variation while still playing those repeated quavers. So if I click through the notes here, (musical notes ringing) I can hear there are lots of different cymbals that I could use. (cymbal ringing) That one there might work quite well. So what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna grab all the notes (musical notes ringing) and drag them up so they're in line with that note there. (musical notes ringing) Let's see what this would sound like. (drum groove music) Let's compare that with the original. (drum groove music) (drum groove music) So that's one way I can change the timbre by selecting all those hi-hat quavers and moving them to a different cymbal. The other part of the drum kit that's really effective to change in this way is the snare. So if I click on my kick and snare pattern here at bar 17, I can see my snare (snare ringing) is the second and the fourth note of each bar. (snare ringing) So beat two and beat four. Quite effective things you could do with this. I'll change it to a clap sound. So if I found a clap here, (claps ringing) it's just one note higher. (musical notes ringing) I can grab those notes, drag them up, (claps ringing) and now we have a clap instead of the snare. (drum groove music) Compare that to the original. Listen out for the snare. (drum groove music) (drum groove music) So we can hear the contrast created there by using that clap sound. There are other sounds that would work instead of the clap. So you might be able to find a rimshot, which is a click sound on the side of the snare. (rimshot clicking) That would be that one there. (musical notes ringing) That might work quite well as well. (drum groove music) So those are two really effective ways of creating variation by changing the timbre. You could put the hi-hat pattern onto a different cymbal or you could change the snare sound to claps or rimshots. Maybe altering the rhythm of the existing parts. I could also create variation by altering the rhythm of some of the existing parts. One really good option is to alter the kick drum rhythm, which would be rather than playing on beat one and three, I could play it on every beat. That would create a little bit more sort of rhythmic drive. So the way I could do that rather than re-recording entirely is I could just copy this kick drum note. Right click, copy, and then paste it on beat two and beat four. And I could do the same in this next bar as well. Let's see what that sounds like. (drum groove music) Compare that to the original. (drum groove music) So that's one option. And I could experiment with different rhythms on the kick drum as well, just making sure that whatever I do, it's still got that beat one and beat three in each bar. That's really key. With the hi-hat, we could change the rhythms really by adding some open hi-hats instead of just closed hi-hats. So at the moment, we just have this closed hi-hat sound. The open hi-hat sound is very different. That's gonna be this one. (open hi-hat ringing) They're quite different sounds. And adding the odd open hi-hat in could sound quite effective. If you're doing that, I would recommend doing it at the end of a bar. So I'm gonna take this last hi-hat quaver (hi-hat ringing) and move it to an open hi-hat. And I can do the same in this bar. (hi-hat ringing) Let's have a listen to this now. (drum groove music) I could also do it twice in a bar, so I could do it halfway through the bar and at the end of the bar. (musical notes ringing) Let's hear what that sounds like. (drum groove music) Compare it to the original. (drum groove music) So you can hear that's created quite a bit of contrast there just by changing the parts of the drum kit that are used and changing some of the rhythms as well. So when you're doing this, experiment, create a little bit of contrast so there's a bit of variation, but make sure you're still keeping those core features like the kick on beat one and three, the snare or similar sound on the back beat, and those repeated quavers on the cymbal. Now this could include changing the kick drum parts from beats one and three to play on every beat, and adding open hi-hats to the hi-hat part. There are endless possibilities when creating variation. However, small changes are usually more successful because they help to create a balance of repetition and contrast. Remember, don't make too many changes, only change one part at a time, and the end of the phrase works well for adding variation. Let's take a moment to pause and check our understanding. Although you can make changes to a drum groove at any point, where is often the most effective place in the phrase? The beginning, the end, or the middle. Pause the video here and give yourself a moment to think and press play when you are ready to continue. If you said the end, you're right. Well done. This now brings us to our final learning task. I'd like you to create a variation to your electronic drum groove by doing one of the following from bar 17 to 32. Keep the existing rhythms but change the timbre. For example, swap the snare for claps or rimshot, or swap the hi-hat to a different cymbal. Or you could alter the rhythms of the main groove. For example, extra notes on the kick, or adding open hi-hats to the hi-hat track. So pause the video here and give yourself enough time to have a go at creating a variation to your electronic drum groove, and press play when you are ready to continue. How did you get on? Well, listen to this groove with some added variations. What variation is created in the second half? Consider, are there any additional rhythms? Has the main groove been varied? Do the instruments change? So have a listen to that now and consider these questions. (drum groove music) (drum groove music continues) So, what variation is created in the second half? Well, the fundamental rhythm of the groove has stayed the same throughout the clap, but halfway through, the snare has been changed to a clap sound and the hi-hat rhythm changes from playing quavers throughout the bar to playing on beats two and four. So well done for having a go at creating variation in your groove and listening to this one to spot what's been created in the second half. Before we finish this lesson, let's summarize what we've learnt about creating variation to a fundamental drum groove. Repetition in drum grooves is important, but adding some contrast can create interest. Contrast can be added in the following ways. Adding new rhythms and sounds on a separate track. Altering the fundamental groove. Keeping the same pattern but using a different part of the drum kit. For example, ride cymbal or crash cymbal. And variation in drum grooves works well at the end of a phrase. Thank you for joining me in this lesson. I hope you enjoyed learning all about drum grooves. I certainly did. I hope to see you for another unit of learning soon. See you then.