12tone

Write Better Drum Parts (2024x12)

Air date: Aug 09, 2024

The most overlooked instrument needs love too. Drums are the hardest instrument to write for. Or, rather, they're the easiest, and that's the problem. For arrangers without a lot of percussion experience, it's natural to just default to a simple pattern and leave it alone, or to try to overcomplicate things without understanding their purpose, and either way, the end result is often a pretty lackluster beat. But I'm also an arranger without a lot of percussion experience, and over the years I've had to learn a lot of drum lessons the hard way, so for all my fellow non-drummers, I thought I'd put together a little guide on how I approach the rock ensemble's most challenging instrument.