How to Make “UK Jazz” Drum Beats

Revolutionary UK Jazz Music Makers

I’m Kate harmony this is very harmony and welcome to half music theory where we help you make great music that stands out if it’s your first time here please help yourself to our free book the twelve music theory hacks to learn skills and chords which you can download from our website hack music theory calm and just before we jump into the lesson a quick reminder that today is the last day that everything on our website is 40% off so if you are ready to go deep and learn how to write great songs from start to finish then our online apprenticeship course is for you if you’re in a hurry though then we recommend grabbing our songwriting and producing PDF which contains all the essential music making hacks.

Alright without further ado it’s time to open your door to hack music theory first match up the theory hack in this lesson is from the new single free my skin by the inspirational London collective steam down but the music in this lesson which you’ll hear at the end is actually our music that we wrote using their theory on that note we could definitely make lessons on their melodies chords and bass as well because there’s so much interesting theory going on in those but this lesson is all about rhythm so we’ll focus on their drum groove right so start by setting your tempo to 146 BPM then make 2 bars of 4/4 with your grid set to 16th notes now the first kind of feature you’ll notice is that tempo that ain’t a tempo for sitting on your ass and listening that’s a tempo for dancing this is just one of the many refreshing aspects of this new UK jazz movement this isn’t really jazz this is the sound of London.

Hometown Is A Melting Pot Of Cultures

You see London which is my hometown is a melting pot of cultures so its UK Jazz is a reflection of that this is why you’ll hear elements from homegrown grime Jamaican dancehall West African afro beat and more all coming together in this new sound and this musical melting pot is quickly captured by steam down by the way big shout out to Gary Crosby and all the other heroes at the tomorrow’s Warriors charity with a life-changing educational work.

Four On The Floor Almost The Driving Force Behind This Awesome Groove

Behind this movement step one four on the floor almost the driving force behind this awesome groove is an almost fall on the floor pattern on the kick the drummer plays B 1 3 & 4 but not be too this creates a super dancey groove but leave space for something more interesting step to more syncopation next in that space left open by not playing a kick on B to the drummer plays a couple syncopated snare hits on beats one and two and then in the second bar there’s even more syncopation as they are three syncopated snare hits on beats a 1 a 2 e and 2 step 3 irregular hats now there’s only one rule when it comes to UK Jazz the hats in this groove don’t play b2 by leaving that be totally open the drummer ensures that the super funky groove created from all those syncopated snares is not watered down because this is steamed down not watered down also by having some rests on the hats it creates an irregular pattern which keeps the groove unpredictable and lastly there’s a 30 second are thrown in for extra spice all right now let’s have a listen to this melting pot of rhythms from around the world but just before the playthrough if there’s an artist you’d like us to hack up please let us know don’t forget today is the last day of our epic sale so get over to hack music theory calm right after this lesson for 40% off everything thanks for watching or listening here on the podcast and we’ll see you next time [Music] you

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