Drum Parts

If you want to start playing the drums, or already have been, then you should read this article. In this article, I'll discuss some oft-ignored topics of learning drums. You'll learn your basics, see how you can learn away from the drumset, and find out how to use your practice time. If you can apply all my suggestions, then you'll be ready to go in no time!

Reverb, when applied to drum samples, is grossly underused in popular music. At the same time, though, a lot of the people who make use of the effect for their drum parts abuse it and degrade the sounds to the point of annoyance.

When using the reverb on just one of the drum samples, think about the effect you're trying to achieve. Is the sound a constant sound? Could it drive your listener crazy after repeat visits? Or is it something that colors the other samples, so to say? Once you can figure out the role for that particular drum sample, you'll be a few steps ahead and closer to your goal!

In beat making, there exist two spatial factors that are often overlooked: time-sensitive density and swing. We'll be taking a look at the latter in this article, as there are a lot of beat makers who have not paid enough attention and have not applied the most basic principles of using swing on drum samples and instruments.

First of all, why use swing? Swing is useful in two situations. It is first of all useful when having used an editor or a click-in interface (like Reason's Redrum or the FL Studio sequencer), and in this case it serves to humanize the drum samples loop. If it weren't for the swing, all the samples would be precisely on point, and the human ear likes to perceive variance, not 100% accuracy in everything. This is what makes concerts such an appeal; if your favorite artist sang the exact same notes with the same tones and timing as the CD versions of his or her tracks during every live performance, there wouldn't be such a demand.