How to Write Drum Parts (for non drummers) 

K.K. Demon Slayer really is a hidden gem in the Animal Crossing soundtrack

I've been writing drum parts for 11 years for video game stuff as a non-drummer and still learned a ton from this. Thank you.

Bruh, as a fellow drummer, this is one of the best "how to be a better drummer" lessons on youtube. Thanks for digging into the "why" of a drum part, not just the mechanics. also: "An open hi-hat begs to be closed" A+ 100% stealing this.

i play drums why am i here

How to write drum parts for non-drummers: remember your drummer has only two arms Edit: you guys need to stop listing prog drummers unless they can play snare + hi-hat + two toms + another snare roll at the same time

As a drummer I can say this is right on the money. Really well explained, I've never heard all these ideas expressed so eloquently and succinctly.

Gonna line out some tips for people who wanna dive a bit deeper: Grooves (more often than not) are best when they follow other instruments! You already wrote a sick bass part, so try matching the bass drum to it. Give the snare ghost notes following the guitar, set up the hi hat so it accentuates the keys... There are a million ways to mix and match these parts and specific drums but in general, bass goes with bass, snare goes with melody, and hi hat goes with background chords and shenanigans. Great drums bring out the best in the rest of the music. So following drums are everyone's favorite - drum fills. So here's the thing, absolutely do steal stuff - but the best way to develop a good fill is to mutate the groove. Keep the melody of the groove going but move things around to toms and add some notes in between, and after two or so beats where we gradually went from groove to fill we can now move back from fill to the groove (the Motown fill is a great choice for example, could've just set it up more so it would feel more comfortable) - this is where you can absolutely steal something, the way you set up the fill plays a massive role in how it sounds. Fills should be a gradient, not a border between two colors. The last thing I have to say (and it's my one little gripe with this video, which is otherwise wonderful and no doubt really useful for non drummers) is that drums and drummers are - at the end of the day - playing a melody. This means you should use your knowledge of phrasing in the drums. So, try to think what fill would work for a bass for example and just move different pitches to different drums. Then you can elaborate or change things, but you should be able to sing / understand what is going on. Which leads me to the actual gripe I had, and it's fast notes. We all love em, and they are very, VERY often misused (at least in my opinion). Fast notes are the equivalent of a singer belting or a trumpet just blasting at a high register. They function as a massive energy bombs you can drop, and they should be used with care. I... Don't like the way they were used here. Especially with the shots (I call em kicks), you never really fill through shots unless it's a drum solo - at least from my experience. Otherwise it's just a fill to the next section... My advice would be to stay away from continuous use of 16 note triplets and/or 32 notes. They are fun but you have to know how to phrase with them. I would only go with really fast fills if you really are at a super high energy point - but just be careful. Think what a trumpet would play to fill in the gaps, and fill the long notes with fast 16 triplets and you should be good. Writing this on my phone was not a good idea. The formatting is probably garbage, any way cool video byeeeeeee~!

As a drummer for ~20 years, this was actually a solid tutorial to writing drum parts! Lot's of players arrange music in our horn band, and I could seriously consider showing this video to them. While the premise in this video is writing drum parts to game music in a way that sounds organic, writing drum parts for a human to play in a band/orchestra has a few extra points: - The less ink there is on the paper, the better! Use repeat signs ABUNDANTLY! They look kinda like percent signs (%), and they save a ton of space. If you were to write every bar out, the drum part easily stretches out >2 pages long, regardless how long the song is. Also it's really hard to keep track of the music, if every bar is written out, and you will NOT get the orchestra hits that you have written, as it becomes a game of Where's Waldo, because every bar in drum notation is very busy. - If there's too much stuff in the paper, the drummer either stares at the sheet music, and doesn't look at the conductor or listen to the band (or his own playing), or the drummer might not look at the sheet music at all, prioritizing listening to the band and looking at the conductor. - There are repeat signs for multiple bars of music, so using a 2-bar loop as a basis is not an excuse to leave it all written in. Depending on the software that's used, they either are supported or they are not, in which case you need to do them manually. (Looking really angry at you, Musescore!) However, generally avoid 4-bar repeat signs... - Related to the previous points, if you are transcribing music, don't write every nuance and flourish the drummer plays in a recording. The end result is usually illegible without hours of time to study the sheet music. I generally have ~5 minutes to check out the sheet music of a new arrangement before we start to play it in my horn band. Concentrate in the big picture, we will add our own flourishes in any case.

*drops a phat jam that is absolute fking fire* "Not too shabby"

As a very classically focused composer who's terrible at orchestral percussion, let alone drumkit in contemporary popular Western music, I *very* much appreciate this systematic breakdown of the form and function of drumkit parts. Thank you.

as drummer this was fun to watch as I usually just wing it

As a drummer, it's crazy how much of this information I'd already had internalized just from experience and listening to existing songs, even though I've never really been taught it. Great video!

I’d like to add that, back when I was in high school, learning drums, my instructor taught me that, if you think of volume as a pyramid, where the base is the most prevalent at holding the groove and the peak is the least prevalent, rock would have the bass drum and snare at the base and hi hat & ride cymbals at the peak. Jazz is the other way around.

I feel like a journeyman carpenter who's just learned that wood exists in different types. I never really appreciated the function of drums before, very enlightening. Thank you!!

1:10 Bass drums are usually played on beats 1 and 3... *Shows Mike Portnoy playing in probably 13/8, 17/69 and √420/(π+φ)*

Lastly: Make sure that when you write crazy fills, your drummer has enough arms

8BMT: You can't copyright a drum fill. Marvin Gaye's estate: Hold my beer.

honestly, i really enjoy the videos that talk more about rhythm and percussion and stuff. Everybody talks about chords, and melodies, but you really dive deep into how rhythm and rhythmic intensity effect a piece, and I really appreciate that unique perspective you have as a drummer.

This is fantastic. The only other thing I think really bears mentioning for beginners is intrabeat dynamics. You'll notice that 8-Bit's examples of rhythmic approach notes are almost always softer than the on-beat hits that come immediately after, particularly on the kick drum. Similarly, his "constants" (whether they're on a cymbal, snare, or kick drum like the metal example) are not at the same velocity throughout the measure. The off beats are softer than the down beats. It's how real drummers sound. Constant velocity on a constant generally feels pretty square, excessively high energy, and inhuman. Of course, that may be your intention (like for making super high energy modern dance music), but if you're either going for the feel of a live drummer or just want the beat to feel more organic, you generally want to alternate velocities on any constants you program.

Dude, I'm a bass player trying to come up with drum tracks to practice on and this video was a Godsend. Please do more videos like this one. Thank you for the great content.

Having footage of Mike Portnoy whilst talking about the very basics of drumming is extremely confusing

I was wondering when you'd cover something like this since you're a drummer yourself! Super useful! :D

This is expertly presented, amazing job!

I’ve played drums for 5 years now and this is right on the money

For someone who never got drums beyond a very primal "this sounds awesome", this was a great introduction of what goes on with that instrument. Thank you!

I'm a beginner drummer and this really helped understand certain song's beats and why the drummers played in those patterns.

I've been a drummer for over 10 years, and while I've never written any parts I've had an intuitive understanding of a lot of this due to my imperfect memory. You know how it goes, your band members wanna play a song you haven't played in months so you half improvise. Pretty cool to see that what I'm doing is actually the way things work and not just my own weirdness. Also, I never realised the way the stick points indicates whether you play a note with your hands or feet. That's pretty nifty.

As someone who's getting into music production, this helped immensely! Thanks 8-bit!

This is a perfect tutorial for drum writing. I've written and produced music for over 15 years now I know all this, but I had to learn it the hard way. man what a golden resource for all aspiring musicians!

as someone who picked up drums to add to pieces but never really “learned” the instrument, this video was incredibly helpful not to introduce me to these concepts, but to explain why it is I’ve been brainwashed into playing in this way. great video!

I've used Reaper to write at least 15 complete songs, but only 4 or 5 of them have drums at all due to my lack of experience and understanding. One thing I did on my own that helped was recreate drum patterns from popular songs I liked. Michael Jackson is a good place to start when recreating drums. Cheers everyone! Happy Writing!

Two years later and this video is still the only reason I can write drums, haha. Amazing video that I show to anyone interested and have rewatched half a dozen times

As someone who has been learning how to write music for over a year now, this helped me SO much!! Thank you!!

Fantastic! I think the most eye-opening part to me was just how small a fill can be while still having a clear effect.

As a percussionist I was super happy to see you made this! Listen to what this guy says, fr. Get inspiration from other drummers, and be consistent with your notation! Although, I hate when drums put the snare on all the beats lol, it's a bit superfluous when the rhythm section (guitar/bass) are already playing that. I love how these videos are as valuable as college composition classes, keep up the amazing work!

9:16 ”Acting like an orchestra's conductor from inside the band"... Whoa, that's such an insightful description of what percussion does and its main function or purpose😯🎵🤯

I’ve always wanted clear guidance on this topic. Thanks for filling in the gap!

I just started college as a music comp. major and this was incredibly helpful thank you so much ☺️

Dude, that was SUPER helpful. I'm a trained composer but not a drummer, and always feel completely lost at the prospect of writing drum parts. Also the arrangement at the end was marvelous!

I'm not a drummer, but you'll be damn sure I'm going to use it in my guitar playing what you just taught us! Feels like a gold grade lesson that sharpens our fundamentals . Very useful, I'm great! Very easy to understand!

I was literally writing a song today wondering what I was going to do for my drum parts since I don’t play drums. What are the odds. Edit: PLEASE make more videos like this! They’re incredibly useful!!

Azalea Town is one of the most nostalgic tunes for me. Thanks for showing me how drums can make it even better!

Thank you for bringing up reserving the crash. I've played with a few proggers who demanded that crashes be on the 1 for every bar or even measure, especially for odd times. I would oblige in practice to keep things on track but I refused to put it in the recording.

I’ve been drumming for 10 years with a year of weekly drum lessons in there and this was still invaluable knowledge. One of the best videos I’ve ever seen on this channel.

That tension/release idea of a fill followed by a crash cymbal is very profound! Can't believe I never thought of that before!

As someone who's been struggling with writing percussion parts in things I'm working on, this feels like exactly what I needed! Thank you so much for making this so clear!

When you played the sample country/ska drumline and my brain instantly overlaid the proper instrumentation to form Dance Dance by Fall Out Boy, the idea really clicked for me. Im not a musician but I do enjoy studying music, so I enjoyed this lesson a lot, thank you!

This is the best rhythm video I've ever seen, there is so much information here. It's literally the 80/20 for drums. I feel like anyone who can master these ideas could write drums for life

As a percussionist of 8 years, this video will be interesting

this is really cool and amazingly helpful for someone who has never touched a drum in their entire lives the torna battle themes drums from XC2 dlc is still just as confusing as it was 20 minutes ago though

5:03: "You gotta keep 'em separated!" Great, analytical video, I sometimes feel like the melodies and basslines in music get talked about much more than the drum beats, so it was great seeing your in-depth analysis! I will also keep in mind and come up with something better than just adding a cymbal hit at the start of each measure, haha.

That Azalea Town cover was the most beautiful thing I've ever heard in my life ;-;

These were things I picked up and figured out through playing in my jazz band. It was very interesting to see all of these things listed out in the exact way I habitually go through it.

gosh, I could really have used this years ago. drum parts always seemed so unapproachable in my composing days and I ended up basically never using drums. fantastic work

I started producing and I've had no idea how to write my drum patterns. This video was perfect. I've never learned so much helpful information in such little time. Thank you.

I don't usually comment, but I wanted to say thank you for the understanding I've gained. I'm a classically trained flute player with no college education, and your videos expose me to/help me navigate so many amazing concepts and tools which are novel to me. I've been putting off writing too many damn drum parts just because I never knew where to start. This is the video that I've needed for so long, as fundamental as most of these ideas are, to help me start piecing together the final building blocks of an assload of music. I knew I needed to catch up on your vids d:

It's amazing how much your video editing has improved since you started, I really appreciate that the lines moves constantly while it reads the music like you would use your finger to trace a sentence on a page. Keep up the good work!

I love the train metaphor, it cleared a lot of things up for me.

This came to me in my time of need. I was just trying to figure out how to compose drums, and this was super helpful!

I enjoy revisiting these concepts I've come upon over the years and listening to you perfectly conceptualize them for me. It's a great, concise re-up. Thanks.

This video helped me make a breakthrough on a piece I was struggling with for weeks with now. Many thanks.

I'm a learning composer and this is EXACTLY what I needed. Thanks!

This was so useful! Will absolutely be returning to watch this video again a few times - I’m putting together demo versions of my band’s songs as learning aids for my drummer so this has come at the perfect time!

I can't thank you enough for this video. I genuinely needed something like this right now in such an easy to understand way as you usually do. Keep up the good work!

I am so happy you've covered this. I've been through 9 years of post-secondary education in music school and a strong majority of musicians have never written drum parts before in their life. Having good resources for writing drum parts is awesome and this drummer thanks you for it!

Fantastic video, this really feels like the last piece of the puzzle for people like me who always live in the melodies! You should do more videos like this

This is so useful! I'm really glad to see this kind of tutorial video from you, and I would love to see more like it.

That was really insightful! And your final drum part sounds dope!!

i NEED a spotify version of the final result, i cannot live without it

This was def a simple masterclass. excellent man. Only thing I might edit is Hits can always just be, hits, nothing else, which is what drummers do more often than not lol

As someone who's watching this to learn how to write drum parts for my songs (because I don't play), its very encouraging to see the amount of drummers who approve of this. Thumbs up, thanks guys!

Really appreciated the variety of voices in the melody. It was nice to hear the drums paired with each instrument.

As a piano player this has been really enlightening. Good job on dissecting your drum writing process and giving examples for all of the ideas you present. This video will be a very helpful reference for my own songwriting in the future. Great work!

Amazing approachable "functional" drumming for newbies Thank you so much for sharing your passion and knowledge

As always, amazing editing and content. You rock!

i love this! had my first drumming lesson two weeks ago. perfect timing, I feel like I learned SO much

Thank you for blessing us with that Azalea town sample at the end, I was not expecting that. I usually listen to the original pokemon OST's as a background fill to help study and hearing Azalea Town in a new way was like being 8 again and listening to it for the first time:') I wish there was a way to download that version. The drum lesson was almost a bonus to me albeit the finest cherry on top that ever was! This video was very well written and informative

0:09 I'm glad you caveated this with 'theoretically'. Poorly written parts have been created for all instruments. Not understanding an instrument can result in impossible notes being written (usually outside the range), parts written in a precarious or less effective range (depending on the instrument high pianissimo or low fortissimo may not work well or may result in missed notes), no spots to breathe for wind instruments, too wide of chords for keyboards, no time for mute changes for brass, etc. Some time is needed with all instruments to understand idiomatic and effective writing. This is a great introduction to drums!

this was amazing! i've been looking for a tutorial on writing drums that i could understand as a non-drummer for YEARS and i'm so glad to finally have found your video!

This was absolutely awesome, thank you!

12:05 "The real purpose of a drum fill isn't sounding cool or to hype up the audience, it's to telegraph the feeling of each new section of the piece." I'm definitely gonna use this way of thinking to write my next songs!

you have no clue how long ive been waiting for this

This is an incredibly insightful approach to writing drums. Thanks for the video!

Just beautiful. Thank you for this.

...I've been making music for years and this is still exactly what I needed. Thank you, so, so much.

I’ve been writing a lot of music recently using pokemon soundfonts, this couldn’t have came at a better time. Thank you.

Wow I’ve been struggling to write a drum part for a piece I’m working on this week and this is exactly the video I needed! So helpful, I’ve always struggled with drums as a pianist so I really appreciate you making this! Keep making awesome content 👍🏼

This came at the right time, thanks for putting this video right when I was most willing to learn about drums!

I’m surprised it didn’t come up in the video but the FireRed/LeafGreen and HeartGold/SoulSilver versions of the Azalea Town theme each have their own fun and interesting drum lines that work really well with the other instruments

4:42 K. K. demon slayer - animal crossing 2016 XD

Beautiful video! I'd love to see more like this in the future!

This video is so jam-packed with great advice, what a fantastic educational resource! I definitely picked up a few things I'll keep in mind writing drum parts from now on, too!

More games should have dynamic music like Wind Waker's battle theme. It's like I'm creating music by kicking the enemy's rear so hard that he'll be having brainfarts for a whole year

Now imagine going backwards from being a drummer for several years than trying to write for an orchestra

This was absolutely brilliant, thank you this gave me so much insights in grooves and was super entertaining and easy to follow, well done :3

As a self-taught amateur musician, thank you. Before this video I didn't even know how to approach fills, or just, well, making literally anything for the drums.

Me a drummer: Yeah I should watch this

I'm a drummer, still gonna watch this though.

Absolutely stellar tutorial. Thank you so much!

thank god dude ive just been spaghetti-ing my beats (throwing shit at a wall and hoping it sticks) for years i have 0 knowledge of drums this video is a LIFESAVER