Building the Amen break

I continue to refine my new groove pedagogy method: teach a complicated rhythm by presenting a very simplified version of it, then a less simplified version, then a less simplified version, until you converge on the groove in its full nuance. Imagine a pixelated image gradually gaining resolution. My goal with this is to have each simplified version still stand on its own as a musically satisfying groove. I tried the method on the Funky Drummer break, and now I’m doing something more complicated, the Amen break. 

The Amen break might be the most sampled breakbeat in history. It’s a four-bar solo played by drummer Gregory Coleman at 1:26 in “Amen, Brother” by The Winstons. The first two bars are a standard funk groove that makes a great hip-hop beat if you slow it down. The second two bars are more unstable and syncopated, with a feeling of tumbling over themselves. In this video, I build the break up starting with simple quarter notes.

Here’s the buildup in notation:

Let’s explain.

1. Begin with a beat played on quarter notes only.
2. Add ride cymbal on the eighth note offbeats.
3. In the last bar, replace the ride on the “and” of three with an open hi-hat.
4. Add kicks on the eighth note offbeats.
5. Omit the kicks on beat three in each bar. Also, omit the kick on the downbeat of the last bar.
6. In the last two bars, delay the snares on beat four by an eighth note. This disruptive move is probably the most crucial element in the pattern.
7. In the first two bars, double the kicks on the “and” of three.
8. In the last bar, double the kick on the “and” of one.
9. In each bar, add snare pickups on the sixteenth note subdivision before beat three.
10. In the first two bars, add snare pickups on the sixteenth note subdivision before the next downbeat.
11. In the last bar, add a snare pickup on the sixteenth note subdivision before the “and” of one. This is another highly disruptive move, especially when combined with the displaced snares.
12. In each bar, add snare pickups on the sixteenth note subdivision before the “and” of three.
13. Apply groove, which in this context, means the specific microtiming of the break as performed by Gregory S. Coleman. You can’t represent this step in notation!

Groove is much more than just the timing of drum hits, but it’s a starting place. In the Ableton screencap below, the grid lines are sixteenth notes. The yellow markers show the onset of each drum hit. As you can see if you look closely, hardly any of them are exactly where they are “supposed” to be.

You can’t adequately represent the Amen via MIDI or music notation. Its timbre is doing as much musical work as the placement and timing of drum hits. The sound of those drums is instantly recognizable, even when they are sped up, slowed down, transposed in pitch, chopped up and so on. Maybe once I have a better handle on how timing works in this kind of groove, I can start thinking more seriously about timbre too.