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