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I guess most drummers will know this, but if you program your own drums or use loops, think about using a different groove for your song.

The basic pattern

Standard drum pattern that most of us learn is a 4 beat combination of bass, drum and hihat. Hihat every beat, bass on the first, snare on the 3rd. And repeat ad nauseum.

Then we get to add more bass, use 8th notes and so on.

What's the focus?

I was collaborating on a track a couple of months ago and as we we browsing the library of drum loops, we just couldn't find anything that suited. We ended up creating one ourselves and it was interesting to see the differences in how the two of us approached it.

I approached it very much from the basic, rock drumming angle, laying down the main beats first. My collaborator took a different approach and focussed on the choked hi-hat pattern. I then had to place the other beats around that.

Which was better?

It all fairness, neither. But here's the crunch, they drastically changed the feel of the music. It changed the feel so much that when I recorded a new part (say a guitar melody over the top), I played that differently.

So we recorded both sets.

One became the music for the opening credits, the other became the closing credits. We were also able to switch between the two main rhythms in the middle of track to change the feeling yet again.

Live Drummer

It's a common trick. Drummers will regularly change the rhythm pattern, if not you may as well use a drum machine! Using a live drummer means they can respond to the way the music's going. Moreover, they can change the rhythm, turn that around to drive it in a different direction. The difference for us was that we'd applied it more excessively than usual, but it still worked.

Ahead or behind?

Is this the same as playing ahead or behind the beat? No, it's neither. It's just syncopated, we were still playing at a regular syncopated interval. The choked hi-hats were on the "ands" of "1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and" for most bars/measures instead of on the beats of "1 2 3 4".

Part of a series by Award Sounds offering a selection of creative ideas to kick-start or rejuvenate a composition.

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