Transcripts
1. Introduction: You don't have to
have 10 years of experience in order to
create a good trump pattern. Some of the people
that you look up to, they don't make gold every time, and you have to be
okay with that. As soon as you learn
that, I promise your confidence is just going to continue to build and build. My name is Isaac Duarte, I'm from Chicago, Illinois.
I'm a music producer. Probably seen me all
over the Internet, probably heard a song from a
mix tape that I've produced. Probably heard me on a
video game track too. If you're nervous about
taking this class, the best piece of
advice I could give you is to dive in the water. Just like when you
jump into a pool and it's cold and then
you get used to it, you're going to get
used to these things. Whether that's sound selection, finding the right pockets, where to put certain snare
rolls or high hat rolls. Those are all the things
that took me years to learn, and I'm going to teach
you in today's class. The way that you're
going to learn is by watching me
break down a pattern, and explain the mind frame as well as the
thinking behind it. I'm going to teach you guys the hot spots, the turnarounds, as well as how to get
creative with your drums, and how you can
find a nice balance between simplicity
and complexity. I want to teach you
what I've learned so that way you can apply to your tracks, and
make something new. After completing this class, I want you to walk away with a new framework to always
make new slappers. I'm excited you join this class. I can't wait to share
all these gems with you, so let's get started.
2. Getting Started: Getting your drums to hit, honestly, it's not
that big of a mystery. You could turn it
all the way up, but if you have a bad pattern, does hard-hitting
jams even matter? The more harder part
that everybody gets stuck on is which
rhythms to use, which sounds to use, and how will it
complement the melody. That used to be one
of my biggest issues, but after years of
trial and error, I know how this goes
a little bit more. That's exactly what you're going to be learning in this class. When you make it to
the end of this class, you'll learn how to make
better drum patterns, have better sound selection, and know which drums are perfect for that
hard-hitting sound. I'm going to show you
exactly how I create my drum patterns and you
can follow along as well. I'm using FL Studio, but if you don't use FL Studio, if you check the Project
and Resources tab, you can have access
to all these middies, sounds, as well as
this project file. Even if you use any other doll, you can still follow along. The project for this
class is to create your own drum pattern and
then upload it to Skillshare, and then I'll listen back and give you some
feedback and pointers. I'm going to show you how to make a drum pattern that fits perfectly with Class 1's
melody that we made. Now open your doll and
let's get started.
3. Build a Hi Hat Pattern: The first thing that I'll
start with is the hi-hats. The reason being is because they give me more direction on
where I'm going to go. If I'm making R&B and
I want something slow, I can have the
hi-hat go like this. So that way it
guides and goes with the melody and it's not too crazy because the person
on the record is singing. If I plan on making rock music, I don't play drums, I don't
know how to play drums, I can't get on those sticks. Just like a drummer, I
have to emulate that. There's little intricacies
that you can introduce to the hi-hats
like hi-hat rolls, play with the panting,
play with the velocity, all the things that I'm
going to show you today. One thing that I like to do
first is solo the melody, and solo the hi-hat. And I'll go through my browser, and I'll go through
sound after sound until I find something
that interests me. So I'll play it and then
I'll go through my hi-hats. That one sounds cool, but not that great.
Not for this one. That one sounds pretty good, but I'm going to
go with this one. The reason why I picked this sound after going
through a whole bunch of hi-hats is it sounded the
best with the melody. It wasn't poking out too much, it sat just perfectly. So that's a good
indicator that hey, this is the one to use. Even if I don't like it, if I changed some stuff around, I could always pitch it up, pitch it down, or just
change the hi-hat. There's a ton of sounds that we have already
in our computer, so don't feel pressured to commit to just one,
try some stuff out. This is the initial pattern
that I chose to commit to. Now how I got there,
it's pretty simple. I'm going to duplicate this. So I have this second hi-hat. The first thing that I do is I right-click and then I
fill each two steps. So it sounds like this. You've heard this
in plenty songs. Very simple. Not Picasso yet. [LAUGHTER] So the first thing I'll do is I'll write
click and hit piano roll. Now, this is the
thing that I'm going to teach you, super
basic concept. I'm going to color where
the snares usually go. And I'm going to mute this. I'm going to turn the velocity all the way down so
it's not hidden. Usually the snares
go on the three. That is right here, right here, and right here. Let's just listen to the
pattern with two step hi-hats. Notice where I'm hitting is
exactly where the snares are. The reason being is
because I use the snare as a reference for where
the hi-hats sound best. They usually sound best right
before or after the snare. I'm going to change the color to emphasize where the parts are. So this is before the snare, this is after the snare. These places right here are exactly where the
hi-hat rolls are. If you look at the ghost
notes, these in the gray, you'll notice that the
hi hat rolls are in that range and they sound
good because of that. There's not a lot of
movement going on there. I'll listen back to it
and I'll just think of a pattern just little by little. If you're wondering
what was the hot keys that I used to create these hi-hat rolls?
It's pretty simple. All you have to do
is highlight it, hold Alt and A and this Arpeggio
tab is going to open up. It's probably going
to look like this. You don't want that.
Switch the range to one and this time manipulation
**** is where you can get either something super choppy or
something just slight. It all depends on
your personal taste. Don't feel afraid to add too many rolls because
if it sounds good, and then you listen back
and it's like okay, it sounds a little bit too much, then you could just
take stuff away. I add a ton of rolls, and then I take stuff
away little by little. So this one over here might
not sound that great. So let's hear it back. Sounds way better now. I try not to add too many
different types of rolls. If you notice, the rolls are pretty consistent throughout
this whole pattern. If I go to this other pattern, the rolls are pretty consistent. Like this roll is the same
as the roll over here. This roll is the same as over
here, it's just extended. So don't feel the
need to add triple hi-hats and then one fourth hi-hats and all the
stuff at the same time. I tend to just only use two and if it calls for it I'll
take something like this, and then I hold Alt, and then this little arrow
that's going left and right, if you hold Alt you could
stretch those rolls. So you could either go super long or you can go super short, which would give
it a faster roll. So it'll sound like this. But really it's the same roll as this one and just
stretch differently. If you follow this guideline, it'll sound good every time. Just do what feels right to you and then subtract
until you're like, this doesn't sound like I need to take anything else away. Once you land there,
you're golden. So let me show you how to give your hi-hats
more character. So let's attack velocity first. You could trick people's ears into making the pattern sound a little bit more crazier just by messing
with the velocity. So just like this
roll right here, I have the velocity down. All I did was I took it from clicking here to
clicking down here. Let me move this note,
as opposed to this. I think this one
just sounds better. It's just a little moment
that's going to trick the ear. Now, the velocity over here, I have it going up like this, just by right
clicking on my mouse, right clicking and holding
and going up with it. So it transitions into
this next section. It goes from this, to this. It feels like a roller coaster. Over here in this part, which is going to be
the turnaround part, I have the most rolls because I know it's going to
transition over. Now, when it comes to
these other notes, you tell me if this sounds good. I'm going to have
the whole hi-hat pattern hitting
on the same note. That sounds good, but now
let's move everything back. Now let's listen to the one
that sounds way better. Sounds way better. The reason being is because along
with the velocity, I messed with the pitch. Some of these rolls I brought up because it
sounded good to me, it sounded good to my ear. And if you bring a
note up and then you lower the velocity and you
layer it on top of a note, it sounds really good. I have this layer right here. I have this layer right here. These bottom notes
and this top one. It just gives it a little bit more emphasis on the rhythm. If you want to make your hi-hats a little
bit more unique, we're going to
introduce panning. Panning is super
sick because when you do have those
high hat rolls, you can make it feel like
they're going left and right. Go to this left bar where says control and
it's going to highlight. Click it and hit "Note Pan". Now, you can select a note and then just mess with the
value at the bottom. We're going to go
from left to right. This one I wanted to swirl
like in between your ears. So we're going to do
something like this. This one I want to go
all the way like this to the left and this one I want to go all the
way to the right. Then with this one, I want to do the same
thing left, right. Let's move this middle note right here. These middle notes. Left. And this
other one slightly, right. Now, let's listen to it. If you have headphones, you're going to hear
it immediately. Notice my hands, left, right. It's going in between the ear. So if you don't
want to do all of that and you want
to randomize it, what you can do is hit Alt R and this randomizer
is going to pop up. You could adjust the panning
and the velocity here. So let's reset that. Let's adjust the panning just a little bit. All of the notes here are randomized and panned
left and right, as well as the velocity. You can get creative
with that if you don't want to spend tedious
time adjusting it. Now it's your turn to create
your own hi- hat pattern. Start with sound selection. Next, fill each two steps, and then add hi-hat
rolls in the hot spots, and just get creative with it. Once you have your hi-hat rolls, play with the pitch,
play with the panning, and play with the velocity. Get creative with it, and I can't wait to hear
what you make. Up next is snares.
4. Add Snares and Accent Snares: Now we're in the snare
and clap portion. I feel like this is a
very important part because if you
pick a weak snare, nobody's going to hear that. But if you pick a strong snare that's way too loud
and overpowering, people are going to only
notice the snare and nothing else because it's
so loud and in their ear. You need to find a
perfect balance. Now, you could use
snares, claps. You could use snares as accents, you can do snare rolls. There's all sorts
of things that you can do with snares and claps. In this beat, I have a
pretty basic snare and clap, because you hear it
in a lot of songs, and honestly it's a good go to. I feel like if I went with a very unorthodox snare or clap, you won't really be
able to get the concept because sometimes
with uniqueness comes its own lane and not every sound fits with a unique
snare or unique clap. Sometimes you need
those basic ones because they're proven and
they sound really good. This is exactly how
I choose my sounds. I listen to the beat
with all the elements, and I go to my browser, to one of my drum
kits off of my site, and then I just play. It doesn't really have that. This one sounds really good. Turns up. That's cool. Sounds good. Good. A lot of these sounds
sound really good. But I could tell you there's some sounds that
are tailored for certain beats and they're not
tailored for other beats. If you use a very unique
sound that doesn't fit, it's going to stick out like a sore thumb. Just
like this sound. I feel like this sound
would be perfect for something more introspective and maybe like ominous
with sense and R&B chords. But if I use it on this bet, it's not going to sound
that great because it sticks out like a sore thumb. The sound that I chose
is the sound that's available in the Project
and Resources tab. This is clap, and this is snare. You've heard it in
a ton of songs, but they just work perfectly. Let's start with the clap. Usually the clap
goes on the three. Just like I mentioned earlier with the hot spots
for the hi-hat, this is exactly
where the clap goes. Do you hear how the hi-hat
rolls lead into the clap? It's like they're
leading into it. So the clap is perfect. If you want to turn it up, you can turn up the volume, or you could use the slap ****. What I mean is the
amp and boost ****. Well, it used to
be the amp ****, now it's called the boost ****. You go to the channel sampler, you hit this light bulb, and then you boost again, so it sounds loud. If you go crazy with
it, that's too much. So try to find a nice
balance in between. Perfect. The reason why
the clap and the snare is very constant is
because a lot of songs, they have the same placement where the clap and
the snare goes. For a lot of people that
are listening to music, they already know that the clap is going to
go here and here. If you want to get
creative with it, you can do something like this. You can move this over here. It'll sound like this. Move it over here. There you go. If you listen to Ye, a lot of his songs have
that type of clap pattern. Underground music in general, but that's a very
unorthodox pattern. For today, we're just
going to go super basic. Now that we have the clap and we have it sitting perfectly, we need something to give a
little bit more flavor to it. This is where you
hear an accent snare. If you don't know
what accent snare is, you've heard it plenty of times, but it sounds like this. That in between the
clap is a accent. Right here I have
this basic snare. I love this snare
because it's so basic and I've heard
this back in what? 2005. That's how old this snare is, but it works every time. Right here in the piano roll
is where I have the accents. I can do this. That's cool. But for this beat, I just decided to add it
just one time and then add little accents here that transition it to the next
part. If you listen to it. Then I introduce snare
rolls like this. Just like the hi-hat
rolls, same thing. Alt A to get the arpeggiator, and then you can
adjust the velocity. Again, I mess with the
velocities all the time because I just feel like it gives it just a
little bit more flavor. I don't like hearing everything just total regular volume of
velocity or just blaring. With these things
like percussion, snare accents,
like hi-hat rolls, I like to play with
the velocity a lot. I also like to play
with the panting. As you can see, I
have the snares panting from left to right. Let me reset everything so
you can hear it just regular. Now let's hear with the panting. It just gives it a
little bit more flavor. A little bit more
ear candy to me. Now, when it comes to
snare roll placement, I don't like a lot of
snare rolls that go , [NOISE] all of that stuff. You'll never see me add a snare at the beginning
of the bar like this. Just doesn't sound
that right to me. I usually reserve it for
that last little turnaround. With the snare roll
pattern or types, that's where you can
get created with it. You can do something like this, or you can do
something like this , and then change velocity. Or you could change the timing, 1/6, do something like this. Or you could change it to 1/3 step and get a
different pattern. It all depends on the type
of idea that you have. That's pretty much it for the placement of the snare rolls. Again, as I stated before, on the turnaround is
where I like to put the snare rolls because
it just sounds ear pleasing and it gives more resolution to the whole
phrase of the pattern idea. Now it's your turn to create your own pattern with
the clap and the snare. Start with good sound
selection by playing the beat, and then playing your
sounds and seeing what sticks out to you. Then place them in
the familiar parts. Then get creative
with the pattern. When it comes to
the accent snares, they sound best on
the turnaround. Create your own pattern, and I can't wait to
hear what you make. Next up is my favorite
part, the 808.
5. Program the 808: Now that we've set the
foundation with our hi-hats and our claps
and our accent snares, it's time for everybody's
favorite part, the 808s. If you don't know what an
808 is, it's basically that, it's that sound that you hear coming out of the back of cars, that trunk rattle, that hard knock that you hear
in a lot of songs today. There's different
types of basses, classified as like
808s, sub-basses, guitar basses, 909s, and even a synth bass, which we used earlier. Now you might be
asking yourself, how is he going to
use a synth bass and 808 together,
they're going to clash. Well, luckily for you, there's this thing
called arrangement that I'll touch on later, but for now we're
going to go into a different section where
the 808 is the main thing. Now let me put these on. Now, when it comes to the 808s, there's all sorts of 808s, there's millions, people are
putting packs out every day. There's no shortages
of 808s ever. But there's two that are just, they're faithful every time. Just like the clap and the accent snare that I
shared with you earlier, there's two types of 808s that I use pretty much all the time. I deviate from them a lot, but these are good go-tos
and these sounds that I'm giving you in the Project
and Resources tab are my personal favorites, so they're modified and they have that punch
straight out the gate. The first bass is
called the Zay 808. Sounds like this. This
one is beefed up, and I use this
like all the time. Anything you hear from me
that uses that type of bass, it's this sound that
I'm giving you guys. The second one is the
old trustee Spinz 808. This one sounds like
this and it just works. It sounds good and
it sounds bouncy. Now, with both of those sounds, there's not a lot of
processing on them. I could feel comfortable
throwing distortion or any other type of
creative effect on there. When it comes to
finding the right 808, I'll loop up the melody and then I'll just go
through one of my kits. I like that one. Now, while going
through these sounds, these sounds are
going to clash with the melody because
they're not in key, but that's totally fine though. In today's case, I'm going to be using the old trusty Zay 808. Now that we have our sound, how do we come up with a pattern? Well, luckily this one is a lot easier because we already
have the bass notes. The only thing you need to do is go to your bass
where we created and just copy and paste. They're right here. Boom.
This 808 has a tone. Just like the melody, you're going to have to
transpose to that key as well. All you have to do is
right click the note. I'm in A minor, which is all the white notes, which is A. Now if I press "Add to key", you're going to see
that it's a C sharp. That's the actual key we're in. I just transposed
it to where I could play any thing on the white
notes, and it sounds good. Then unclick "Add to key" and
then boom, you're in key. Let's listen to the melody with just these
bass notes copied. That's a little too low. Let's go up a couple of octaves, so I'm going to hit Control up, the up direction,
and go up to A6. Let's listen to it now. Now it sounds good, but the tone isn't there. That lowing is totally gone. Reason being is because
it's up a couple octaves, so let's go down to A4. That's probably where
it's going to sit the best. Now that we
have the notes, we can get creative
with the pattern. Now you don't want to go
too crazy with the pattern, so the best thing you
could do is just meet this and try to listen back and
just beatbox a pattern. Even if you have to
tap, that's good too. We're just getting
the rhythm down. Listening. If you want to know a good indicator
of what a good pattern is, it's one that you
could easily memorize. Let me show you the
pattern that I got. That sounds pretty good, it sounds pretty open. Now here's two tricks I'm going to show you with the 808s. Go over to the Envelope tab of the 808 and
change the attack. Adjust the hold and
then adjust the decay, sustain, and release. Bring all of those
down. The only thing that should be all
the way up is hold. Now it sounds like this. We don't want that, so hit "Control L" to
connect all of them. Now you have a little bit
more control of the 808. Let's say I want a long one, but I want a short one
right here. [MUSIC] Now that I have a little
bit more control over it, I can get a little bit more
creative with the rhythm. If I want to be like [NOISE] as soon as I
adjust it, it cuts off. That's just the way to give your sounds a little bit more bounce. Another way to give it a
little bit more bounce is to introduce rolls to your 808s. Now, usually don't recommend doing a tunnel rolls
with your 808s, so much like the accent snares, I try to introduce a little bit of rolls to
transition into the next part. We're going to delete
that. Boom. Copy paste, stop it at the end of the bar. Next, hold Control, select it, hit "Alt A". Alt A for rolls is
your best friend. We're going to mess
with this time now, so it's going from this
to not that crazy, but something like this. Next you can do two
things with this. You can either right-click
and hold and drag the no velocity up.
It sounds like this. The rolls give it
like a fake reverse. If you heard Roddy Ricch's, The Box, it's the same effect. Another thing you could
do, if you want it to be a little bit smoother, especially if you chop
it into smaller bits, go up here to the
wrench tool and go to LFO or you
could hit "Alt O". Now you get a little
bit more control over the notes and the velocity. If you want it to be a
little bit more smoother, you can adjust these settings. You can adjust it to
a square, a triangle. Usually, I keep it on sine
and I keep it like this. That way it leads in smoothly. Then I bring it up
just a little bit. It sounds like this. Let me just copy and paste
the pattern over so you get more accurate
representation. If you chopped it into
super small bits, it'll sound like this. Same process, but you get a little bit more smoothness to it. [MUSIC] You hear that? I'm going to slow it just so you can hear it. It's a super sick effect and it tricks the listener
into thinking like, man, this is reversed
when really it's not. I like it how I had it before, so we're just going to do that. With these fake reverse rolls, you don't want to have
it all the way up. You want to mess with
the velocity and have at least under 75%. Subtlety with those is best. One thing that I
have to let you know about is the balance between
simplicity and complexity. From here to here, which is 1, 2, 3, three bars, simple pattern. Over here is where you can get a little bit more creative
because it's a turnaround. Same concept, from
8-5 very simple. But over here, 8-9, that's where the
complexity comes in and that's where the
808 rolls happen. You don't have the
808 rolls everywhere, but you have it
in that last bar, so that way it's a
good turnaround. I'm going to give you a
visual representation for all my visual learners. Over here in the blue, this whole part, simple. Over here in the orange, complex, that's where you can
get a little bit creative. Let's listen back and I'll add a little different
pattern at the end. I followed the guideline.
I did nothing in the blue, but in the orange
section over here, in that range is where I
introduced a couple of notes to introduce a little bit of creativity. Let's
listen back to it. This isn't set in stone, it's not the end-all be-all. If you deviate from this, there's no wrong way to do it. This is just the way that I've learned to have
nice transitions. If you hear any
song on the radio, just keep an eye out for that. If you want to take it further, you can take the
MP3 from any song, throw it into FL, sink it, and I promise you, in those little sections
that I showed you, there's going to be 808 rolls or different patterns there. That's my process and I hope you like that because it took me a long time
to learn, honestly. Now it's time to create
your own 808 pattern. First, start off by
finding a sound. If you can't find a sound
that fits your beat, it's okay to go to the
ones that work best. Next, set it to the
key of your beat. Then copy the bass notes of that melody into a new
pattern, into the 808. Then from there, listen
back to the melody and beatbox or tap a simple
rhythm. Lay that down. Now you have a foundation
where you can get creative and introduce
things like rolls, as well as adjust the ADSR
settings within the 808. The next up is the kick.
6. Write the Kick Pattern: Now that we have the 808, one thing that we could
introduce to give it a little bit more of a
slap to it, is the kick. Now, some beats
don't require kicks, but for this one, I really wanted that knock and that's exactly what
I'm going to show you. Now this can introduce a problem depending on
the 808 that you choose. Some 808s have a kick in them to give them a
certain type of punch. When you introduce a kick on top of an 808
that has a kick, there could be
some issues there, but there's a couple
ways to solve that. You could either change the
sound, adjust the attack, adjust the pitch, some people side chain, I personally don't,
but that's an option. All these different ways are
just different techniques to blend the kick
and 808 together. I start off by finding
a good sound because sound selection is 75
to 85% of the battle. If you handle that, you save yourself from a
bunch of headaches. When it comes to a kick, I try not to overthink it, I try not to overdo it. I listen to the 808 and I
just go through my kicks. I like that one. That
one sounds pretty good. That one sounds pretty good. But I need something
that really hits. Now with sound selection, you can't force
another good sound to be with another good sound, they have to compliment
each other. Case in point. If I use this sound which is usually for
like reggaeton beats, it's not going to
sound that great. I could use a different bass
and it could sound great. But that on top of this 808, it'll be noticeable how
bad it sounds together, so it's best to use something
that complements rather than just using something for the sake of it
because it's a kick. Just like all these
kicks that I have here, some of them sound good, but I'm looking for one
that fits together. With kicks, I leave
it just as is, because if I find the
right kick sample, everything else falls
together perfectly. Luckily, I've given you
two good kick samples. There's this one that I'm using today, and
then there's this one. The same, but a
little bit different. The great thing about these
is if you change the pitch just up like two notes,
they hit differently. This kick is usually the
go to for a lot of people. If you listen to a lot of wonder girls beats
or even Boy wonders, you'll hear this kick in
a lot of their songs, so consider yourself part of a secret group
that has this kick. I try not to go super crazy with the kick pattern because
I already have an 808. All I have to do is find the spots that
complement it the best. I'm going to mute this
one and I'm going to copy my kick pattern
over to my 808 channel, so that way you can see
how they layer together. This is my kick pattern. If these MIDI notes
are too small for you, what you can do is
hold Shift and hit D, and then it'll snap to grid. If you have something larger, it'll snap to grid
so that way you can grab them more effectively. Now as you can see at the
bottom of the ghost notes, these are where my 808s are and this in the green
is where my kicks are. Notice how I have some kicks
where the 808s are not and then I have some
kicks where the 808s are. It's because there's certain
parts that I want to emphasize and if I have the pattern of the
808 going one way, but I have the kick doing
something crazy like this like that's too much. I need to find a nice balance. Usually, since the 808 is the star of that
frequency range, I want the kick to just
pop out at certain times. I just messed around with it. There's really no
right or wrong way, I just kept it to two bars. Think of the kick in the
808 as like a relationship, you can't see them all the
time or else it gets boring. Sometimes you do want to
see them all the time, but for other times it makes it way better when
you miss them. With the kick, pretty simple,
pretty straightforward. If I want, I can just copy
paste this over and then add a little variation. When it comes to the
pattern, you can copy and paste the pattern
of the 808 to the kick but I like to take
it individual, one by one, especially with the ghost
notes because it gives me a reference so that way
I know where the 808 is, so that way I can put the
808 there or avoid the 808. If you feel like the kick in the 808 aren't blending as much, you can go to the MIDI
score of the 808, hit Control L to connect
all of them and then you can adjust the ADSR settings like we mentioned earlier. But you can adjust
just a tiny here, maybe like 2, 3% the attack, so that way when the 808
hits and the kick hits, they blend more together. Listen. Let's try
with the other kick, because maybe that might
sound really good too. If you want to turn
up your kicks, you can just turn them up with the volume or the boost ****. These kicks are already boosted, so you won't have
to do too much. All you have to do is raise the volume or
maybe lower it to find the sweet spot. Let's try another pitch.
Sounds pretty good, but I think I'm
going to roll with the original kick that I used as well as the
original pattern. When it comes to the different
patterns for the kick, I try not to add too
many different patterns. I only keep it at
2-4 to because if I start changing the kick pattern
and all this other stuff, it's not that it's not
going to sound good, it's just, it has like all these different
rhythms happening. I only have the kick hitting when the 808 comes
in at certain times. Outside of that,
it's very simple. Now it's your turn to create your own catchy kick pattern
to compliment your 808. First, start by playing your 808 and finding the kick
that works the best. Again, if you can't find a kick, don't be afraid to go to
the Project and Resources tab and use these sounds
that I've given you. They work every time. Now once you have your kick
that complements that 808, find an interesting
pattern that's like two bars that's easily loopable, so that way it complements your 808 rather than
fights against it. Again, don't be afraid to use the ghost notes of
your 808 as a guide. It's all there for you. Next up is percussion.
7. Add Percussion: Now that we have the groove
and we have the slap, we need a little
bit more movement and this is where
percussion is introduced. Anything could be percussion. If I tap these funko pops
together, they make a sound. If I juggle my keys, that makes a sound and I
could use that in a beat. Percussion has a wide range, that's why it's one of the
most freeing things to use, because once you
have the foundation, you can introduce
little elements, little textures to give it that uniqueness and
movement to it. Think of this as the
more human element. Let me put these on. Now when it comes
to sound selection, I'm listening to my
pattern on loop. I'm just listening
to the drum pattern. I'm not really listening to the other elements because
with the percussion, this is where you
could do way too much. Sometimes you don't
even need percussion, sometimes you don't even
need that many sounds. I mean, if we count them, I used 1,2,3,4,5,6,7 sounds. A lot of my beats don't
require over 10 sounds. If you're going crazy and adding a whole
bunch of percussion, you're just creating more
problems with the rhythm. Because you're creating
all these sub rhythms rather than finding the rhythms that compliment the main rhythm. The way that I search for a percussion is I go to my packs again and I play the drum pattern and just go through a whole
bunch of sounds. I like that. There's a whole bunch of percussion sounds
that I've made that are really unique and they
work in a lot of beats. For example, this
sound right here, it's called 007 Golden Gun because it reminds me
of that video game. All it is, is
actually a high hat, but it's tweaked a certain
way and I made it into a percussion and rather than doing that whole
process all over again, I just saved it
as its own sound. Let's listen to this right now. Notice how it's not interrupting the groove of the high
hat, the snare rolls, and the clap comes in, comes out very simple,
very effective. If you want to look
at it even further, as soon as I go to
the piano roll, these notes right here follow the low notes that I
pitched in the high hats. It complements that sound and it gives it just a
little bit more texture, a little bit more uniqueness. The next sound that I
added was this open hat. It's like my go to open hat
that you guys now have. I love using open hats. I use them at every beat. I need to stop using
them at every beat, but they're just really good
to emphasize certain parts. I have it over here
and over here, so let me play the whole thing. When you're playing
the percussion, you should be able to point
out the rhythm like this, because it flows together. If you're doing all
of this, you're doing way too much,
you need to stop. [LAUGHTER] If I play it in context with the kick and the 808, it sounds pretty good. Simple, effective,
very easy to use. Now it's your turn to get
creative with your percussion. Loop the drum pattern, and go through your sounds. Find the sound that
peaks out to you. Once you have those
unique sounds, try to find where
they complements the rhythm of the other sounds. Don't go against the flow, go with the flow. That's a life lesson
too, once you have that, you should be able to point it out where the percussion is, so that way you know
what flows together. Create your pattern and I can't wait to hear
what you made.
8. Final Thoughts: Congratulations, you made it
to the end of this class. You now know how to make
a great drum pattern. We touched on sound selection as well as finding good rhythms, and even learned a little
bit of life advice. Now that we have a really
good drum pattern, we need to arrange it to have a full track because we can't have it all in
one eight bar loop. I can't wait to see
you in the next class.