Nothing beats playing with other humans, but other humans aren't
always at your disposal. For beginners especially, practicing
over drum loops is three times as productive as playing with
a metronome, and nine times more productive than playing alone.
It does wonders for establishing time, especially for learning
to play slow, and for internalizing complex rhythms.
You can think of a measure of four-four time as an ice cube
tray with eight slots, one for each eighth note, like so:
| one |
and |
two |
and |
three |
and |
four |
and |
| strong |
weak |
strong |
weak |
strong |
weak |
strong |
weak |
| downbeat |
-- |
snap |
-- |
backbeat |
-- |
snap |
-- |
A basic rhythmic cell, what Reason
and other techno programs annoyingly call a 'bar', is actually
two measures of 4/4 time. The basic cell has sixteen slots,
one for each eighth note. In Reason you can also use twelve-slot
patterns for 3/4 time.
When you turn on 'swing' or 'shuffle' it makes the strong eighth
notes longer and the weak ones shorter. The more shuffle, the
more unequal the eighth notes become.
Less is more in music, and that's never truer than in drum
programming. Experiment with taking notes out of the patterns
below. For example, try removing the snare hits from the hiphop
beat for a nice intro or breakdown section.
kick = bass drum
hh= closed hi-hat, shaker, tambourine
oh=open hi-hat
cl=clave, rimshot, bell, etc
