Beat
Time is a grid that repeats. A drum beat of your own, built on the grid.
12 parts: 5 lessons, 5 patterns, a project and a listening round
The whole unit
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- How it worksFree
The beat
Count sixteen boxes, four of them strong, and find the beat in any track.
Patterns: Four-on-the-floor, Backbeat
- Free
- How it worksFree
On and off the beat
Move one sound from steady to leaning by putting it between the beats.
Patterns: Backbeat, Off-beat open hat, Piano stabs
- How it worksFree
Faster notes
Hear why more notes feel busier, not faster.
Patterns: Swung 16th hats, Triplet hat rolls, Root-note eighths
- New patternFree
Four-on-the-floor
Meet the kick on every beat, build it, pick it out by ear and keep it as a card.
Patterns: Four-on-the-floor
- New patternFree
Backbeat
Meet the kick on 1 and 3 with a snare on 2 and 4, build it, pick it out and keep it.
Patterns: Backbeat
- New patternFree
Off-beat hats
Put a hi-hat between every kick, then pick it out of a track.
Patterns: Off-beat open hat
- New patternFree
Eighth-note hats
Build a steady hat, twice per beat, and tell it from its neighbours by ear.
- New patternFree
Sixteenth-note hats
Build a hat four times per beat: busy and driving, and easy to mistake for eighths.
Patterns: Swung 16th hats
- ProjectFree
First beat
Your project: a beat for a run, for focus or for a late walk, started from your cards and made your own.
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Play the patterns from this unit
Four-on-the-floor
A kick on every beat
115–130 bpm rhythmBackbeat
Kick on 1 and 3, snare on 2 and 4
70–140 bpm rhythmOff-beat open hat
An open hat between every kick
118–130 bpm rhythmSwung 16th hats
A hat on every sixteenth, every second one late
75–100 bpm rhythmTriplet hat rolls
Fast hats with bursts of three
130–150 bpm bassRoot-note eighths
The chord’s root, twice per beat
100–170 bpm chordsPiano stabs
Short chord hits between the beats
118–128 bpm