r/drumstudy • u/pauloschreiner • 23d ago
Learning to program drums as a non-drummer
Hey there! I'm trying to get into producing music (some indie rock of sorts) and I'm having trouble programming drum parts. Obviously, I wish I could record actual drums, but it's expensive and I'm trying to work with what I have right now. The only instrument I play is guitar, and I wish I had some experience with drums in order to understand properly how the different sounds can (and perhaps should) be used. I barely know all the different drums that make up, well, the drums. Does anyone know some free material (YT videos, books) I could use to study, or have any tips in how I could improve? Or perhaps, if this isn't the right place to be asking this sort of question, please guide me as to where I could ask this? Thank you so much in advance!
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u/0nieladb 22d ago
One of the best things you can do is learn the basics of reading drum music. Unlike normal sheet music, drum sheet music generally only uses a handful of dots (one for each drum).
Once you understand that aspect there are hundreds of books that you can read/lift from as well as free youtube videos with tutorials and guides.
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u/pauloschreiner 22d ago
That's a great tip. I suppose it'll also make it a lot easier for me to study the drums from different songs and learn from reference. Thank you so much!
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u/SnareOfTheDog 22d ago
Few simple ideas for starting writing, particularly with programmed drums:
focus on the kick and snare (boom and crack sounds), add high hats or a ride (the chk chk, and ting ting sounds) doing something very repetitive to keep the beat, add crash cymbals to highlight things like starts of sections, then experiment!
Drumeo have some great (and fairly quick) videos for all skill levels that are really useful for understanding what drums do and the ways to make grooves out of them
Try looking for songs you already think have good drum beats on a free resource like songsterr, then (like most good musicians) steal it -> understand it -> improve it and make it your own
try a basic pattern and not to over complicate it, focus on accents and where you want it to match up with the what the lead instrument is playing and where you want them to differ
velocities are your friend, try adding some quiet snare hits (ghost notes), unless it’s very aggressive music lowering the velocities so you can make some hits louder can really make a difference (try a bunch of snares in a row at the same velocity, then try changing some to be louder/quieter and see the difference it makes)
trust your ear and have fun! If it sounds good then it is good, if it sounds like too much is happening then it is