What is a build-up in music?
A build-up is the section before a drop where a track raises the tension on purpose: the drums speed up, the sound gets brighter, something climbs in pitch, and the kick drops out at the last moment. It usually lasts 4, 8 or 16 bars and ends on the first beat of the drop. Below are the same 8 bars five times, with one trick added each time.
The same 8 bars, one trick at a time
Each version keeps the tricks before it. Switch while it plays and it carries on from the same bar.
Build tension, then release it
Unit 1 of the course is free with a Google sign-in: the loop, the beat and your first beat on the grid. Build-ups and drops are in Unit 7, Form and energy.
Pick up where you left off
Carry on with Unit 1; song structure is Unit 7.
The four tricks
1 · No tricks
Eight bars of the groove, then the drop. Nothing tells you the drop is coming, so it lands as a surprise rather than a release.
2 · A snare roll that speeds up
Two bars of snares on the beat, two of eighths, two of sixteenths, two of rolls twice as fast, each pair a little louder. The tempo never changes; the hits just get closer together, and it feels like speeding up.
3 · A filter opening
The whole mix starts muffled, as if it were behind a wall, and a low-pass filter opens over the 8 bars until it is bright again. On the timeline the rows fade in from the left.
4 · A riser
A sweep of noise and a tone climbing two octaves, getting louder all the way, cut dead on the downbeat of the drop.
5 · The kick drops out
The kick leaves for the last bar. The floor goes out from under the track, and when the kick comes back on the first beat of the drop it feels heavier than before.
Why they work
Each trick is a promise. A roll that keeps getting faster can’t go on forever; a filter that keeps opening has to finish; a riser has a top. The listener feels that something must happen on the next 1, and the drop keeps the promise. That is tension and release, which the course’s Tension and release lesson builds by ear.
The tricks also stack. One alone is a hint; all four at once leave no doubt. Most build-ups use two or three, and save the kick drop or a moment of silence for the very end.
How long should a build-up be?
4 bars is short and punchy, the length of the build in the 32-bar track. 8 bars is the usual length, as here. 16 bars or more is for long, slow builds in trance and big festival tracks. Whatever the length, it should end exactly on a phrase, so the drop lands on bar 1 of the next 8.
More ways to build
- Add parts one by one: a hat, then a clap, then a bass, each on a new bar.
- Turn up the hats, or move them from eighths to sixteenths.
- Pitch something up, like the snare in the roll, a little more each bar.
- Cut the bass as well as the kick for the last bar, as the drop page does.
In a song with words, the build-up has a name of its own: the pre-chorus, the lift before each chorus. Opening a filter across a build is also a lesson in Unit 8, Change over time.