Drum beat

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A drum beat or drum pattern is a rhythmic pattern, or repeated rhythm establishing the meter and groove through the pulse and subdivision, played on drum kits and other percussion instruments. As such a "beat" consists of multiple drum strokes occurring over multiple musical beats while the term "drum beat" [1] may also refer to a single drum stroke which may occupy more or less time than the current pulse. Many drum beats define or are characteristic of specific music genres.

Many basic drum beats establish the pulse through alternating bass (on the on-beats) and snare drums (on the off-beats) strokes while establishing the subdivision on the ride cymbal (thus its name) or hi-hat:

Drum beat
Simple quadruple drum pattern, "Straight blues/Rock groove": [2] divides each of two beats into two.

This establishes a quarter note pulse in (quad)duple time: each measure is formed from (two groups of) two quarter note pulses, each pulse divided into two eighth notes.

Drum beat
Simple triple drum pattern: divides each of three beats into two.

This establishes a quarter note pulse in triple time: each measure is formed from three quarter note pulses, each divided into two eighth notes.

Drum beat
Compound [quadr]duple drum pattern: divides each of two beats into three.

This establishes a dotted-quarter note pulse in duple time: each measure is formed from two dotted-quarter note pulses, each pulse divided into three eighth notes.

Drum beat
Simple duple drum pattern but with triplets: divides each of two beats into three.

Compound triple meter is equivalent to simple duple meter with triplets on every beat.

Drum beat
Compound triple drum pattern: divides each of three beats into three

This establishes a dotted-quarter note pulse in triple time: each measure is formed from three dotted-quarter note pulses, each pulse divided into three eighth notes.

A "fill" is played in between the regular strokes of a pattern and/or signals the end of a phrase:

Drum beat
Sixteenth note fill in a rock/popular groove played on a drum kit. [3]

Since a phrase is multiple measures long, a fill signaling the end of one would come at the end of the last in a series of repeated measures.

In double and half-time patterns the pulse and ride are either doubled or halved, respectively, occurring twice or half as often:


Drum beat
Double-time: the snare moves to the "&" beats while the hi-hat begins to subdivide sixteenth notes. Also, the eighth notes 'sound like' quarter notes in two tiny measures.
Drum beat
Half time: the snare moves to beats 3 of measure one and two (beats 3 & 7) while the hi-hat plays only on the quarter notes. Also, the quarter notes 'sound like' eighth notes in one giant measure.

A blast beat drum pattern features all drums on the eighth note subdivision or variants with one or more drum's pattern displaced by a sixteenth note:

Drum beat
Blast beat drum pattern
Drum beat
Blast beat drum pattern


This resembles a combination of double-time (bass-snare pattern) and original time (ride pattern).

Drum beat
Delayed backbeat (last eighth note in each measure) as in funk music [4]

Despite the difference in notation, there is no difference in interonset intervals and this pattern is nearly identical to the first simple duple pattern except for the second onbeat being divided into two eighth notes and the second backbeat being delayed an eighth note.

The heavy metal gallop, named for a horse's canter, is based on a bass drum pattern of one eighth followed by two sixteenths.

This resembles a combination of double-time (bass-snare pattern) and original time (ride pattern).

Drum beat
Heavy metal gallop drum pattern

See also

Sources

  1. Principals of Basic Drum Beats
  2. Berry, Mick and Gianni, Jason (2003). The Drummer's Bible, p.36. ISBN   1-884365-32-9.
  3. Peckman, Jonathan (2007). Picture Yourself Drumming, p.59. ISBN   1-59863-330-9.
  4. Mattingly, Rick (2006). All About Drums, p.104. Hal Leonard. ISBN   1-4234-0818-7.

Related Research Articles

The time signature is a convention in Western music notation to specify how many beats of a particular note value are contained in each measure (bar). The time signature is a notational device representing the meter, an auditory feature of the music.

A blast beat is a type of drum beat that originated in hardcore punk and grindcore, and is often associated with certain styles of extreme metal, namely black metal and death metal, and occasionally in metalcore. In Adam MacGregor's definition, "the blast-beat generally comprises a repeated, sixteenth-note figure played at a very fast tempo, and divided uniformly among the bass drum, snare, and ride, crash, or hi-hat cymbal." Blast beats have been described by PopMatters contributor Whitney Strub as, "maniacal percussive explosions, less about rhythm per se than sheer sonic violence".

"The 'original' or traditional blastbeat is a single-stroke roll played between your cymbal and snare, with your kick playing simultaneously with every cymbal hit."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Metre (music)</span> Aspect of music

In music, metre or meter refers to regularly recurring patterns and accents such as bars and beats. Unlike rhythm, metric onsets are not necessarily sounded, but are nevertheless implied by the performer and expected by the listener.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Polyrhythm</span> Simultaneous use of two or more conflicting rhythms

Polyrhythm is the simultaneous use of two or more rhythms that are not readily perceived as deriving from one another, or as simple manifestations of the same meter. The rhythmic layers may be the basis of an entire piece of music (cross-rhythm), or a momentary section. Polyrhythms can be distinguished from irrational rhythms, which can occur within the context of a single part; polyrhythms require at least two rhythms to be played concurrently, one of which is typically an irrational rhythm. Concurrently in this context means within the same rhythmic cycle. The underlying pulse, whether explicit or implicit can be considered one of the concurrent rhythms. For example, the son clave is poly-rhythmic because its 3 section suggests a different meter from the pulse of the entire pattern.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Clave (rhythm)</span> Rhythmic pattern in Cuban music

The clave is a rhythmic pattern used as a tool for temporal organization in Cuban music. In Spanish, clave literally means key, clef, code, or keystone. It is present in a variety of genres such as Abakuá music, rumba, conga, son, mambo, salsa, songo, timba and Afro-Cuban jazz. The five-stroke clave pattern represents the structural core of many Cuban rhythms.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Beat (music)</span> Basic unit of time in music and music theory

In music and music theory, the beat is the basic unit of time, the pulse, of the mensural level. The beat is often defined as the rhythm listeners would tap their toes to when listening to a piece of music, or the numbers a musician counts while performing, though in practice this may be technically incorrect. In popular use, beat can refer to a variety of related concepts, including pulse, tempo, meter, specific rhythms, and groove.

In music, the terms additive and divisive are used to distinguish two types of both rhythm and meter:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Drum roll</span> Percussion technique

A drum roll is a technique used by percussionists to produce a sustained sound for the duration of a written note.

All drum figures are based upon three fundamental beats, technically called roll, single stroke, and flam...Sustentation is accomplished upon wind instruments by blowing into the instrument; it is accomplished upon the violin and the allied instruments by drawing the bow across the string; it is accomplished upon the drum and allied percussion instruments by the roll.

THE SNARE DRUM ROLL.

The roll consists of an even reiteration of beats sufficiently rapid to prohibit rhythmic analysis. To produce an impression of sustentation, these beats must be absolutely even both in power and in sequence. Uneven beats in a roll destroy the impression of sustentation. Evenness is then the primary quality to strive for in roll; speed is the secondary quality to strive for.

There are two possible ways of producing an absolutely even sequence: (1) hand alternation of single stroke and (2) hand alternation of double strokes...The snare drum roll is produced by hand alternation of double strokes.

The "open roll" is produced by [initially] slow hand alternation. Two strokes in each hand alternately are produced by wrist movement and each beat should follow its predecessor in clock-like precision.

In music, a tuplet is "any rhythm that involves dividing the beat into a different number of equal subdivisions from that usually permitted by the time-signature " This is indicated by a number, or sometimes two indicating the fraction involved. The notes involved are also often grouped with a bracket or a slur.

"Afro Blue" is a jazz standard composed by Mongo Santamaría.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Half-time (music)</span> Type of metric change in music

In popular music, half-time is a type of meter and tempo that alters the rhythmic feel by essentially doubling the tempo resolution or metric division/level in comparison to common-time. Thus, two measures of 4
4
approximate a single measure of 8
8
, while a single measure of 4/4 emulates 2/2. Half-time is not to be confused with alla breve or odd time. Though notes usually get the same value relative to the tempo, the way the beats are divided is altered. While much music typically has a backbeat on quarter note (crotchet) beats two and four, half time would increase the interval between backbeats to double, thus making it hit on beats three and seven, or the third beat of each measure :

1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 1 2 3 4
<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jazz drumming</span> Art of playing percussion, predominantly the drum set, in jazz styles

Jazz drumming is the art of playing percussion in jazz styles ranging from 1910s-style Dixieland jazz to 1970s-era jazz fusion and 1980s-era Latin jazz. The techniques and instrumentation of this type of performance have evolved over several periods, influenced by jazz at large and the individual drummers within it. Stylistically, this aspect of performance was shaped by its starting place, New Orleans, as well as numerous other regions of the world, including other parts of the United States, the Caribbean, and Africa.

In music, the term swing has two main uses. Colloquially, it is used to describe the propulsive quality or "feel" of a rhythm, especially when the music prompts a visceral response such as foot-tapping or head-nodding. This sense can also be called "groove". It is also known as shuffle.

In music, counting is a system of regularly occurring sounds that serve to assist with the performance or audition of music by allowing the easy identification of the beat. Commonly, this involves verbally counting the beats in each measure as they occur, whether there be 2 beats, 3 beats, 4 beats, or even 5 beats. In addition to helping to normalize the time taken up by each beat, counting allows easier identification of the beats that are stressed. Counting is most commonly used with rhythm and form and often involves subdivision.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bell pattern</span> Rhythmic pattern of striking a hand-held bell or other instrument

A bell pattern is a rhythmic pattern of striking a hand-held bell or other instrument of the idiophone family, to make it emit a sound at desired intervals. It is often a key pattern, in most cases it is a metal bell, such as an agogô, gankoqui, or cowbell, or a hollowed piece of wood, or wooden claves. In band music, bell patterns are also played on the metal shell of the timbales, and drum kit cymbals.

In music, a cross-beat or cross-rhythm is a specific form of polyrhythm. The term cross rhythm was introduced in 1934 by the musicologist Arthur Morris Jones (1889–1980). It refers to a situation where the rhythmic conflict found in polyrhythms is the basis of an entire musical piece.

Tresillo is a rhythmic pattern used in Latin American music. It is a more basic form of the rhythmic figure known as the habanera.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Quinto (drum)</span> Highest-pitched conga drum

The quinto is the smallest and highest pitched type of conga drum. It is used as the lead drum in Cuban rumba styles such as guaguancó, yambú, columbia and guarapachangueo, and it is also present in congas de comparsa. Quinto phrases are played in both triple-pulse and duple-pulse structures. In columbia, triple pulse is the primary structure and duple pulse is secondary. In yambú and guaguancó duple-pulse is primary and triple-pulse is secondary.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Heavy metal drumming</span>

Heavy metal drumming is a style of rock music drum kit playing that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s, largely in the United Kingdom and the United States. With roots in blues rock and psychedelic/acid rock drum playing, heavy metal drummers play with emphatic beats, and overall loudness using an aggressive performing style. Heavy metal drumming is traditionally characterized by emphatic rhythms and dense bass guitar-and-drum sound. The essence of metal drumming is creating a loud, constant beat for the band using the "trifecta of speed, power, and precision".

The musical structure of Salsa (music) is composed of several components and sections.