We created the Groove Pizza to make it easier to both see and hear rhythms. The next step is to create learning experiences around it. In this post, I’ll use the Pizza to explain the structure of some quintessential funk and hip-hop beats. You can click each one in the Groove Pizza, where you can customize or alter it as you see fit. I’ve also included Noteflight transcriptions of the beats.
The Backbeat Cross
This simple pattern is the basis of just about all rock and roll: kicks on beats one and three (north and south), and snares on beats two and four (east and west.) It’s boring, but it’s a solid foundation that you can build more musical-sounding grooves on top of.
The Big Beat
This Billy Squier classic is Number nine on WhoSampled’s list of Top Ten Most Sampled Breakbeats. There are only two embellishments to the backbeat cross: the snare drum hit to the east is anticipated by a kick a sixteenth note (one slice) earlier, and the kick drum to the south is anticipated by a kick an eighth note (two slices) earlier. It isn’t much, but together with some light swing, it’s enough to make for a compelling rhythm. The groove is interestingly close to being symmetrical on the right side of the circle, and there’s an antisymmetry with the kick-free left side. That balance between symmetry and asymmetry is what makes for satisfying music.
Planet Funk (eighth notes)
This pattern reminds me of Saturn viewed edge-on. The hi-hats are the planet itself, the snares are the rings, and the lone kick drum at the top is a moon. To make the simplest funk beats, all you need to do is add more moons into the kick drum orbit.
It’s A New Day
The Skull Snaps song isn’t too well known, but the break that kicks it off is number five on the WhoSampled list. The Planet Funk template has some extra kick drums embellishing particular beats. The kick on the downbeat (the topmost slice) has a kick anticipating it a sixteenth note (one slice) earlier, and another following it an eighth note (two slices) later. The snare drum hit to the west is anticipated by two more kicks. All that activity is balanced by the southeast half of the pizza, which is totally kick-free. Like “The Big Beat,” “It’s A New Day” is close to being symmetrical, with just enough variation to keep it interesting.
When The Levee Breaks
This Led Zeppelin classic embodies the awesome majesty of rock. Rhythmically, though, it has more in common with funk. The crucial difference is beat three, the southernmost point on the pizza. In rock, you usually have a kick there. In funk, you usually don’t. The Levee break has a kick a sixteenth note before beat three, which is quite a surprise. Try moving that kick a slice later, and you’ll hear the groove lose its tension and interest. Like “It’s A New Day,” the Levee break sets up the second snare hit with two kicks. There’s another interesting wrinkle, too, a kick that immediately follows the first one. The result is another symmetrically asymmetrical drum pattern.
Planet Funk (sixteenth notes)
If you put a hi-hat on every slice of the pizza, you get a busier version of the basic funk groove. With twice as many hi-hats, you can slow the tempo down and still have an energetic feel.
So Fresh, So Clean
This OutKast banger has a fascinating drum machine pattern. The snare and hi-hat stick to the Planet Funk pattern above, but against all this predictable symmetry, the kick drum is all over the place. To understand what’s going on here, you need to know something about the concept of strong and weak beats. Strong beats are where you expect drum hits to fall, and weak beats are where you don’t expect them. The more times you have to divide the circle in half to get to a given beat, the weaker it is. The weakest beats are the even-numbered pizza slices. In the first bar, pictured above, every single even-numbered slice has a kick on it. This is, to put it mildly, not typical. Usually the base of your beat is stable and predictable, and the higher-pitched ornaments are more unpredictable. That’s what makes “So Fresh, So Clean” so cool.
Nas Is Like
While this track is best known for its samples, and deservedly so, the underlying drum machine rhythm is pretty remarkable too. Like the OutKast song above, the snares and hi-hats are mostly stable, with most of the variation in the kick. I won’t verbally analyze all four bars of the pattern, but if you play with it, you’ll see the idea of balanced symmetry and asymmetry at work.
Amen Break
The Amen break is the most complex rhythm here, and it’s a post unto itself to really explain the whole thing. The important thing is to compare the simplicity of the hi-hatsadditional sound, an open hi-hat in the last bar. Displacement!