Thus for our closed hi-hat (CH), whilst we would count 1 2 3 4 2 2 3 4 we need to program it on 1 3 5 7 9 11 13 & 15. In order to program our eight notes into a machine set up to play sixteenths we have to skip every other button and only use the odd numbers. What you will soon notice as you look at different drum machines is that the buttons tend to be numbered 1 – 16 Redrum’s 16 step buttons for pattern programming When you are comfortable with this, move on to the next part. Next, try the same thing on the snare (SD), but only play it on the “3” of each bar.įinally, try the bass drum (BD), and this time only play on the first note of each measure.Īt this point, you might want to repeat the previous exercise and this time combine 2 of the 3 elements, Now take a moment to count 1234 2234, and imagine hitting (or better still actually hit) a closed hi hat (CH) on each and every beat. SD (1/4 notes) 1 2 3 4 2 2 3 4 This is played twice on the offbeat or backbeat (the “3” or 3rd beat on each measure)īD (1/4 notes) 1 2 3 4 2 2 3 4 This is played twice on the first beat of each measure Instead of saying “1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8” we are going to use “1 2 3 4 2 2 3 4” instead.ĬH (1/8ths) 1 2 3 4 2 2 3 4 This is played throughout – eight times in all This means we are only going to count up to 8! We will leave 16/th notes for another article. From now on I will refer to the musical notes we have discussed as (1/4 notes, 1/8ths or 1/16ths). Let’s create a pattern using quavers (eighth notes) on the closed hi-hat, and crotchets (quarter notes) on the snare drum and bass drum. We know it has 16 in a row, and we need to decide which of the 3 types of notes (1/4 notes, 1/8th notes or 1/16th notes) to use for each of our 3 instruments (CH, SD & BD). The first way is to count the drum machine’s buttons. Let’s look at this a couple of different ways: The Semiquaver or sixteenth (1/16th) note There are also 3 units of musical “currency” that I would like to introduce you to for now:Ĭount the Crotchets (quarter notes) on the start of each bar or measure – that’s the first out of each of the four notes in each measureĬount the Quavers (eight notes) on every other sixteenth note When students come to me for drum lessons the first thing I get them to do is to count from 1 to 16. Rock music tends to use 4:4 time which is made up of 4 measures of 4 beats each = 16 separate subdivisions.
(A shuffle beat will only use 12 of the 16 “buttons”, but that’s a discussion for another time). Most popular music is in 4:4 time also called common time.
There are 3 main components of a drum kit to focus on:Ī drum machine will usually have 16 “buttons”, one for each 16th note to be played in a single pattern or loop.