Unit 4-1: American Pop Beat Patterns

Objectives

By the end of this lesson, students will be able to:

Aurally identify the following principle rhythmic ingredients in Black American Music:
- - Straight vs. Swung Subdivisions
  - Backbeat
  - Four on the Floor
  - Tresillo
Perform the kick & snare drum parts to drum set grooves with stomps and claps
Transcribe the kick and snare drum rhythms from similar 1–2 measure grooves in Western notation
Sight read rhythms in simple and compound time that incorporate triplet and duplet rhythmic patterns.
Sight read melodies that incorporate skips and leaps to scale degree 4.

"Drumbeats" (OMT)
"Rhythm & Meter in Pop Music" (OMT)
"Swing Rhythms" (OMT)
"Living Legend Tries to Make a Living" (New York Times)
"Triplets and Duplets" (Cleland & Dobrea-Grindahl, Developing Musicianship through Aural Skills) - Just read pp. 210–212

A Brief History of Jazz Drums
(Patrick Bartley, 10 mins)

18 Rhythms You Should Know
(David Bennett, 19 mins)

Warmup Rhythms with Triplets
(Sight Reading, 13 mins)

Warmup Rhythms with Triplets & Rests
(Sight Reading, 3 mins)

Grooves: Look through these collections of grooves and try to play a few more. See if they resemble grooves from songs you already know and love.

Groove Pizza: This app was created by NYU's Music Experience Design Lab. Watch the videos (Intro to Groove Pizza, Billie Jean vs. Chameleon, and Understanding Swing), then start experimenting with the pizza.

Rhythm Layers: Explore rhythmic layers in Beyonce's "Single Ladies"

[insert references here]

Assignment 4-1

Copyright Law and Rhythm: Complete the "Performing Grooves" activity for "Cold Sweat" before considering the following discussion:
- - Members of James Brown's band, drummers Clyde Stubblefield and John "Jabo" Starks, were responsible for creating some of the most iconic and influential drum grooves in American popular music, including the "Funky Drummer" break that has become perhaps the most sampled drum groove in hip-hop. Despite their contributions, all royalties from these samples go to James Brown, who holds exclusive songwriting credit.
  - Why do you think American copyright law places primacy on melody and harmony over groove?
  - Stubblefield's and Starks's grooves all use the same traditional ingredients like backbeats, straight vs. swung subdivisions, and tresillo combinations. Are their grooves copyrightable creations, or variations on un-copyrightable generic patterns in your view?

Describing & Transcribing Drumbeats: Work through the Open Music Theory worksheet below to practice identifying and transcribing features of drumbeats:
- - OMT Worksheet: PDF | MuseScore
  - Audio: OMT Spotify Playlist
Performing Grooves: Learn the kick and snare parts to Clyde Stubblefield's “Cold Sweat” groove. Then, discuss the question of copyright and drum grooves (see the discussion question above.)
- - Audio: YouTube
  - Notation File
Transcribing Grooves: Transcribe the grooves for M.I.A.'s “Galang” and Toto's “Rosanna.” These are a little more difficult. Discuss strategies as a group, such as isolating individual voices and focusing on strong beats before subdivisions.
- - Audio: M.I.A., “Galang” (from Arular, 2005)
  - Audio: Toto, “Rosanna” (from Toto IV, 1982)

Sight Reading:
- - Rhythm: Triplets in simple time; duplets in compound time.
  - Melody: Skips and leaps to scale degree 4
Critical Listening/Performance: Drum Beat Patterns
- - See the section on "Drum Beats in Popular Music" for examples of performing drum parts and transcribing drum patterns in popular music.

Anthology: Rhythm Sight Reading

Anthology: Melody Sight Reading

Anthology: Beat Patterns

Next Lesson: Latin American Rhythms

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