Hey, my name is Timo Ickenroth from www.deinschlagzeuglehrer.de and I welcome you to today's lesson Afrobeat by Tony Allen – the two most important patterns of Afrobeat, as taught by Tony Allen, the great drummer and innovator of Afrobeat. Let's start. In this short song I put the two most important patterns into place. The first pattern starts with the bass drum on beat 1 and the second pattern starts with the snare drum on beat 1, so two completely different patterns, we will of course go into this in detail in a moment.
But first briefly about the Afrobeat. Where is its origin? The Afrobeat emerged in the mid-60s from the collaboration mainly between Fela Kuti and the drummer Tony Allen, who then founded Africa 70 and released a couple of very stylish albums, e.g. Zombie, Yellow Fever or No Agreement. Afrobeat also shaped DJs and completely new musical cultures, such as hip-hop, dub, etc. They all find their inspiration in Afrobeat of the sixties and seventies. It's basically a mixture of funk, jazz, highlife, that was very popular music in the early twentieth century in West Africa and the Yoruba culture, a tribe that is native to West Africa. All this together results in the Afrobeat and Tony Allen himself presented the two most important Afrobeat patterns in a master class in England and I am referring to that. The link to this masterclass can of course be found in the video description and if you want to learn a little more about it, my dear colleague Tom Schäfer, formerly from STICKS, now Drums & Percussion, wrote about the Afrobeat in an issue of Drums & Percussion. That is super exciting and interesting and I also got some information that I just mentioned to you, but if you want to go into more depth, then I can recommend this article to you .
It was published in the 06/2021 issue of Drums & Percussion magazine and now let's go further. The first Afrobeat pattern that I want to show you today. I'll play Afrobeat Groove 1 for a few bars and then we'll look at what's going on in detail. That was now the first basic pattern of the Afrobeat and please be sure to also watch the video that I have in the description of Tony Allen, because then you can see how fine and with what light touch Tony Allen plays the drums and I try to do that really copying here, so I try to play very lightly. I also deliberately turned the stick around for my snare drum , like Tony Allen, that gives a slightly different sound and I also consciously play the snare drum not in the middle, but at the edge so that I can tease out a few more overtones.
But let's take a closer look at the pattern, because a lot is already happening. Let's start with the feet. The hi-hat always appears on the '+'. It is in 4/4 time, so if I count eighth notes we have 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + and the hi-hat is always kicked on the '+', i.e. 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 +, that's all for now and the bass drum is on the 1 and when we count sixteenth notes 1e + d 2e + d 3e + d 4e + d is the kick drum on 1 and 1e and on 3 and 3e. That means both together, so right foot and left foot together result in the following pattern, I count sixteenth notes in advance 3e + d4e + d This is the pattern and we now do that together at a tempo of 60 * count-in * Now that was the foot pattern and now we're going to add the snare drum pattern to it. I wrote the whole thing down , if you want you can of course download the whole sheet from www.deinschlagzeuglehrer.de.
It actually makes little sense to isolate the snare drum, because the foot pattern somehow results in such a nice mesh, that's why we now do the foot pattern together with the snare drum and of course we stay at a speed of 60 * count-in * Now that was the foot pattern plus the snare drum. Let's take care of the hi-hat now. The fact is that it is not a real continuous pattern, it repeats itself from measure to measure, but it is a bit broken up and very important, Tony Allen always emphasizes the offbeats a bit here too , that is, we have such an easy one The accent is always on the '+', I have also shown that in the music notation. The whole thing looks like this, just for the hi-hat. By the way, I make the accent slightly on the edge with my shoulder and tap the soft notes a little more on top, but Tony Allen also varies that in his grooves, as I said, it's all just a basic pattern, but it sounds pretty cool .
Attention, now only the hi-hat pattern. * Counting in * That was only the hi-hat figure and for now we only do the left foot and that is partly stepped parallel with the hi-hat, namely always on the '+', i.e. where in my right hand Now in that case my accent is also and there must be no opening , first, later there will also be openings, Tony Allen does that great, but now without opening, that means, I kick the hi-hat, but no open hi-hat sound should be heard. We try our luck. * Counting in * It's not that easy with the hi-hat and the hi-hat pattern for the right hand, now the right foot is added and then we already have the basic structure on which we then at the end can put the snare drum pattern on top. Our foot pattern is clear, * counts * and now the hi-hat pattern, with the slight accentuation on the '+'.
* Counter * And now I add the snare drum at the same tempo, that is, the complete pattern in tempo 60, normally it is played somewhere around 85bpm upwards , so not ultra-fast, but it can be around 100bpm to 105bpm happen, but now the complete Afrobeat pattern number 1 by Tony Allen at a tempo of 60. * Count in * So that was Tony Allen's first Afrobeat drum pattern, now the second follows. Before we analyze Pattern 2 of the Afrobeat, I'll play it out completely for you. The second pattern of the Afrobeat starts with the snare drum on beat 1, which will be unusual for many at first, we are all used to setting the bass drum on 1, due to all the rock and pop music, but here it is Snare drum, so something else. In contrast to the first pattern, Afrobeat Pattern 2 is a two-bar pattern, but don't worry, it doesn't change much in the second bar, only the bass drum figure changes very slightly. In principle it is like in Afrobeat Pattern 1, the hi-hat remains the same as in the first pattern and the left foot you stepped remains the same as with the first pattern, that's good, in principle only the snare drum and the bass drum change and let's start with our feet.
As I said, it's a two-bar pattern, the first bar is a bit reminiscent of an Afro-Cuban tumbao from the bass drum, but there are also Caribbean influences in the Afrobeat, but mainly more through the calypso, so I guess if it originated there, I can't prove it. So, here is the foot pattern, just like everything at a speed of 60. * Count-in * As in the first afrobeat, snare drum and bass drum form a rhythm network, which is why we do not isolate the snare drum now, but directly in combination with the foot pattern. We'll get started. * Counter * It really is best to try to memorize this melody between the snare drum and the kick drum. * sings * Then of course it is much easier to play this pattern. However thinks of this light touch by Tony Allen. What we are now skipping is that we are only combining the hi-hat and the stepped hi-hat, as I said, it is the same as in Pattern 1, that is, we go straight to the next step.
We now combine the hi-hat, i.e. my hit hi-hat with the right hand, the stepped hi-hat on the '+' plus the snare drum pattern, that is, we leave out the bass drum. So we are now doing what is known as a three-way coordination pattern. Of course we stay at a speed of 60. * Counting in * And before we play the complete pattern, just hit the hi-hat and the kicked hi-hat plus the bass drum figure. * Counter * And now the second pattern again played in full at a tempo of 60.
* Count in * There they were, the two most important patterns of Tony Allen's Afrobeat and as I said, be sure to check out this great masterclass. It's in English, but I think most will be able to follow that and it's amazing how this man grooves, what kind of sound he has and he himself says, with these two patterns you can get through in every Afro band, so every Afrobeat Band you can get away with it. Of course he varies it grandiose, so there are hi-hat openings in places that you hardly dare to dream of, there are press rolls , of course small fill-ins, of course the snare drum varies, and sometimes the bass drum, well, it is It's amazing how versatile this groove can be, but only as a basis for now. I hope you enjoyed it, you enjoyed it. Please leave a subscription and of course a Like and should you have any questions or suggestions, write your fingers sore in the comments or write me an email directly to timo@deinschlagzeuglehrer.de or find me on Facebook under my name Timo Ickenroth or on Instagram under my name Timo Ickenroth, you can reach me everywhere there.
I would be happy to hear from you and now I say until the next lesson, do it well, stay safe and sound here, your Timo. Ciao!.