VII. Popular Music
Drumbeats
Scott Hanenberg
Key Takeaways
- The backbeat is common to most pop drumbeats. The backbeat is an accented articulation on beats two and four in quadruple meters, usually played by the snare drum.
- The kick drum is often syncopated.
- Cymbals—hi-hats, ride, and crash—often play regular pulses at the beat, beat division, or beat subdivison level.
- Common drumbeats other than the basic rock beat include double-time, half-time, four-on-the-floor, and dembow.
- Quadruple meters are by far the most common meter in pop music; simple triple is the next most common. A simple triple drumbeat in pop music will often have a snare hit on beat three.
Drumbeats are the rhythmic cornerstone of many genres of popular music, including rap, rock, and jazz. Sometimes a drumbeat is performed on a drum kit, sometimes it’s sampled from an existing recording or programmed into a sequencer or DAW (digital audio workstation). In this primer, we’ll learn about the instrument itself, notating drum set parts, and the features of drumbeats that are common to many styles of music. We’ll also learn how a few particular drumbeats are associated with specific genres.
The Acoustic Drum Kit
illustrates six common components of a drum kit, each of which is described further below.
| Instrument Audio |
Description | |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | Snare drum |
A drum with metal wires stretched underneath that buzz when the drum is struck. This results in a noisy sound (that is, one that fills out much of the audible frequency spectrum). Played with force, it sounds like wood cracking or like a thunderclap. Played softly, it offers a range of effects from clicks and taps to buzzing rolls. |
| 2. | Kick drum (or bass drum) |
The lowest-pitched drum in the kit, played with a foot pedal. It is originally based on a modified concert bass drum, and some still sound with the same booming quality. Other kick-drum sounds have a dull thud, or a sub-bass effect that (over the right speakers) is felt in the body as much as it is heard. |
| 3. | Toms (or tom-toms) |
Drums with a more focused pitch fundamental than the snare and are higher-pitched than the kick. There are often two or three toms on a drum kit, each with a distinct pitch. The pitch can be a more or less prominent feature of the toms’ sound. |
| 4. | Ride cymbal |
A large suspended cymbal. Depending on the thickness of the cymbal, the ride may sound like a warm wash of sound (thinner rides, common in jazz) or a sharp, high-pitched crunch (thicker rides, common in metal music). High, pure ringing sounds can be produced by playing the “bell” of the ride, located in the middle of the cymbal. |
| 5. | Hi-hat cymbals |
A pair of cymbals of the same size; the bottom cymbal is upside-down so only their edges touch. The cymbals are open by default and close when a foot pedal is pressed. When struck, the hi-hats’ timbre depends on how open or closed the two cymbals are. The hi-hat is most often struck while closed, prod