Rhythm Programming I

EML

Today’s Topics

• Understanding Rhythm and the Rhythm Section (25 mins)

• Hands On: Understanding the Drum Kit (20 mins)

• Beat Programming Tools in Ableton Live (15 mins)

• Genre Studies: Rock/Pop, 4/4 Dance music, Hip Hop (60 mins)

• This Week’s Fun Activity (aka stuff you do at home to improve your music making)

What is Rhythm?

• It is the pulse of music

• Caused by accents and note length variations

• Often referred to by musicians as the groove

Dissecting the Rhythm Section

• The Rhythm section is the group of musicians that establish the pulse and chord structure of a music piece

• Consists of 3 key groups of instruments:– Percussion (drum kit, congas, shakers etc)

– Keyboards (electric/acoustic piano, marimba etc)

– Strings (Bass, Guitars, Banjos etc)

• Electronic versions of the above 3 are used in more electronic influenced genres

The Guitar

• Rhythm is most often achieved by strumming chords

• Genres: Folk, Pop, Acoustic Rock, Blues etc

The Keyboard/Piano/Organ

• Comping - Playing block chords, rhythms and countermelodies, often in jazz/funk styles

Video: Comping on Piano Jazz

The Drums

• Outstanding due to its non-pitched nature

• Does not interfere as much with the other instruments

• Essential in almost all commercial popular music

A short list of percussion instruments

Acoustic Drum kit

Drum Machine/Sampler

Ethnic Percussion

BeatboxOrchestral Percussion

Bass

• Seals the low end of a piece of music

• Usually works with the kick drum in popular music

• Unlike other guitars, the bass is usually played 1 note at a time

• Supports the harmony

A short list of Basses

Upright Bass Electric Bass Synth Bass

Basic Rhythm Terms

• Time Signature: Number/Length of beats per bar or measure e.g. 4/4, 3/4, 6/8, 12/8, 5/4

• Tempo: Speed of music• Downbeat: First beat of a measure• Upbeat: Last beat of a measure• Onbeat/Offbeat: The series of strong and weak beats in a

meter in 4/4 time• Accent: Emphasis of a note/hit by playing louder• Syncopation: Notes/Hits not falling on the beat,

accents/rests on weak beats, anything that breaks the constant pulse

Some rules when writing for the rhythm section

• Listen to what the other instruments are doing and fill in when there is space

• Density = excitement

• Try not to double the lowest note as it will get boomy

Clapping Exercise

• Follow along and clap.

• Try to understand whether it is syncopated or not.

Hands On: Understanding the Drum Kit

• BFD2 is a popular vst used for sampled acoustic drums.

Using the Ableton Drum Rack

• Drag the Drum Rack Instrument to a new Midi Track

Adding Single Hits to the Drum Rack

• Go to the Browser and find some single hits

• Drag and Drop into one of the boxes in Drum Rack

Slicing a Loop to Drum Rack

• Right click on a loop in the browser. Select “Slice to New MIDI Track”

Slicing a Loop to Drum Rack

• Select default options and click Ok

Entering patterns into Ableton Live

Samples

Velocity

NotesFold Keyboard Audio Preview

Midi Editor Keyboard shortcuts

• CTRL + 1 – Shrink grid

• CTRL + 2 – Widen grid

• CTRL + 3 – Triplet grid

• CTRL + 4 – Turn grid off

• Double click – Create note in grid box

Genre Studies

Dance Pop/Rock Hip Hop

Pop/Rock

Pop/Rock – Basic Drum Patterns

• 4/4 time, snare on beats 2 and 4.

• Kick on 1 and 3

• Hi hats on 1/4, 1/8, 1/16 notes.

• 16 note hats too intense? The difference is in the accent

• Occasionally replace closed hats with open hats

• Cymbals on downbeat every 8 or 16 bars

• Ghost notes on snares

• Ride cymbals

Some Pop/Rock Drum Fills

• Triplet fills

• Hit drums in 1/8 note or 1/16 note patterns

• 1 Bar Fill in between sections. 1 beat fill every 4.

Avoiding the machine gun effect

• Ableton Live Groove Features

• Turning off the grid and adjusting note timings

• Adjusting Velocity of individual notes

• Play in the pattern using a midi controller and do quantization a bit of quantization

Bass Patterns for Pop/Rock

• Root-Fifth bass patterns

• Filling in gaps in the rhythm

• Passing notes

• Playing in sync with drums during fills or pre-chorus

• Expressive playing - slides

More resources for acoustic drum patterns

• Look at the midi patterns that come with BFD

• Check out the great acoustic drum website: www.freedrumlessons.com

Dance Music

Dance Music Structure

• Basic music structure

• Tempo: 130 bpm up

Excerpt from Dance Music Manual (modified)

Basic Instruments

• Synth Lead

• Low Pad/Strings

• Synth Bass

• One shot Fx

• Reverse Samples

Basic Dance Music Drum Patterns

• Kick drum on every beat

• 1/16 note hi hat patterns

• Open hat on second 1/8 note of every beat

• Snare on beats 2 and 4

• Layering of other loops on top depending on genre e.g. tribal

• Crash on 1st beat of every section introducing a new instrument

Common Dance fills

• Dropping the kick for 1 beat before a small transition

• 1/16 note Snare/Kick roll increasing in volume for 1 bar/4 bars

• Increasing volume kick with high pass filter.

Melody Rhythms

• Offbeat pattern centered on 8th note of every beat

• Lots of repeated notes with interesting rhythms

• Use of delay/filtered delay

Bass Rhythms

• Melodic syncopated distorted bass, mostly for electro house type music

• Basic offbeat bass line on every 1/8 note of a beat.

• 1/16 note basslines

Essential technique – SidechainCompression

• Sidechain, sidechain, sidechain everything

• Most often used on bass and pads

• Gives that sucking/pumping feeling

Sidechain compression from “Dummy Kick”In Ableton Live

Basic Dance Transition effect

• Pitch bend up several octaves using glissando on a mono synth patch

More Resources

• Tutorial Master List on Tranceaddict.com

Hip Hop/R&B

Hip Hop/R&B

• Originated from sampling breaks from old funk/soul/disco records

Instrumentation

• Rap

• Soulful female vocals

• Synths as accompaniment or harmony parts

• Samples of old records

Basic Hip Hop/R&B Beat

• Kick on 1st beat + extra syncopated beats

• Rhythm is based on old breakbeats

• Tempo - 80 to 100

• Clap on 2 and 4

• The rhythm is in the rapping.

R&B and the 4-on-the-floor love affair

Kanye West - Stronger

Essential techniques

• Autotune

• Double Tracking

Choose An Exercise this Week

• Choose 1 of the 4 exercises to complete this week at home in the genres of either hip hop, pop/rock or dance.

Pop/Rock ExerciseThis Week

• Choose one of the 4-bar acoustic guitar samples provided and write 3 different 4-bar sections for bass and drums similar to what was shown in the lesson

• Write fills of different lengths in between sections

• Try out bass in sync and bass out of sync during fills

Dance Music Activity This Week

• Create the 32 bar intro section of a 4/4 dance piece until the breakdown similar to what was shown in the lesson.

• Use the technique of slowly adding elements layer by layer to keep interest

• Layer at least 1 sample on top of the main beat• Use an ascending bass line for an uplifting effect• Experiment with bass distortion and sidechaining

effects• Hint for chord progression: Keep the song to the root

chord for the whole intro. During the breakdown, vary the chord progression faster to create excitement.

Alternate Dance Music Exercise

• Complete the intro and first breakdown of the cover of Above and Beyond vs Andy Moor -Air for Life

Hip Hop Activity This Week

• Create a standard hip hop beat with a verse chorus section

• Use 2 different kick drum patterns for each section

• Sample a piece of music of your choosing and fit it into your tune through effects.

References

• Dance Music Manual (In studio)

• Acoustic and MIDI Orchestration for the Contemporary Composer (Adrian’s personal collection)