How to Compose Drum Music
Drums provide the rhythmic backbone of many different kinds of music around the world. Writing music for drums can be simple or truly challenging. The number of different kinds of drums you can use for composition is almost infinite, as are the possible combinations of drums for a soloist or for multiple drummers. The conventional drum kit, as played by a single drummer, is perhaps the most common set of drums for composition in Western music, especially in popular music. Many of the techniques involved in composition for drum kit will also transfer to other kinds of drums.
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Instructions
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Decide what rhythm you would like the drummer's right hand to play. For a right-handed drummer with a conventional drum kit set-up, the drummer's right hand would play a regular rhythm--quarter, eighth or sixteenth notes--on the hi-hat cymbals. Choose a rhythm, bearing in mind that drum kit "grooves" often repeat a rhythm many times. Decide which cymbal or drum you would like it to be played on, and notate the rhythm on your manuscript paper. Consult the Drumkit Notation Key for instructions on how drum kit music is notated. Each stroke on the hi-hat cymbals, for example, is notated by an "x" above the top line of the drum stave.
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Decide what rhythm you would like the drummer's left hand to play. If the drummer's right hand is playing a regular rhythm on the hi-hat or another surface, the left hand commonly plays the "backbeat"--beats 2 and 4 of a 4/4 or "1-2-3-4" count--on the snare drum. Quarters, eighths or sixteenths on the hi-hat with the left hand playing a snare backbeat combine to create one of the most common 4-beat drum kit grooves. Notate the snare drum part using a black note head on the second space from the top of the stave. Use a vertical line to join the snare notes to any notes played by the right hand that will happen simultaneously with the snare.
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Decide what the drummer's feet will play in this groove. For a right-handed drummer with a conventional kit set-up, the right foot plays the bass or "kick" drum with a pedal, while the left foot operates the hi-hat pedal. In the most common backbeat-based groove described above, the right foot commonly plays the bass drum on beats 1 and 3 while the snare plays on 2 and 4. Notate on your manuscript what the drummer will play on the bass drum and/or hi-hat, referencing the drum kit notation guide for how and where to notate these two elements of the kit.
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Tips & Warnings
Playing four different rhythms with the four limbs--right and left hands and both feet--is known as "four-way coordination" and is quite difficult for most drummers.
Typical foot patterns for the drumkit include "walking"--right, left, right, left with the feet on bass and hi-hat-- or "four on the floor", in which the bass drum and/or hi-hat feet play quarter notes.
The steps above describe relatively simple rhythmic grooves, but don't be afraid to experiment with more complex rhythms.
Grooves on drum kit typically repeat, looping around for a certain or indefinite period of time. However, the grooves can be broken up--or indeed replaced by--non-repeating drum solos or short solos known as "fills."
References
- Photo Credit drums image by agno_agnus from Fotolia.com
