Everyone can write a drumbeat. You can tap a pencil on your desk, tap your foot, clap your hands or bob your head in time to the music, unless you are a paralytic. If you are unable to move, or consider yourself hopelessly beatless, there are always drum machines, and you can work one of those with a pencil in your mouth if you have managed to sprain both wrists somehow, so that is not a valid excuse either. There are lots of great freeware available that will let you create nice drum loops, and combine these loops into entire songs if you want—I’ll supply you with a link or two if you like, but don’t let a lack of a drummer or a certain percussion instrument keep you from writing a little rhythm into your compositions. Even if you have a drummer, or can hire one, many really appreciate it if you let them know what you expect, and let them play with that idea if you hope they can improve on your work, rather than just stumble around and have you get mad at them—it’s cheaper for you, too, either way, in saved studio or learning time.
Start with the Bass-ics
If you already have a music track laid down, you can try to sync it up to your drum machine and figure out the tempo you want (some music reps insist on 120 for everything, but there are many camps that aren’t so picky). You can do this with a simple metronome beat, or just place a beat at the beginning of each measure on your loop maker. Speed or slow it up until it matches your music, and watch if you need to speed or slow up anywhere—many loops will allow you to speed up tempo within a song, some won’t. If you can’t, just program the basic tune at one tempo, then you can always just manually increase the speed during recording to match the other tracks, or just train a drummer to follow the tempo changes.
Replace your metronome with the appropriate bass drum beat you hear going with your song. If you aren’t sure, try playing with several until it sounds right, or, if you really aren’t that self-assured, listen to lots of other tunes with a similar feel to yours and find a beat that appeals to you. With most bass beats, you can just copy them and not worry about copyright infringement—unless it’s really quirky, but it’s so easy to just change even a quirky one up until it is your own idea, and doesn’t sound like the original. Most country and rock bass beats are pretty standard, but if you throw reggae, Euro beat or some of the new pop and rap groove ideas into the mix, the bass beat can be quite different. Study the proper pattern for the genre you wish to write in, and keep to the accepted ones if it is standard Country or you are trying to write something for a really idiosyncratic artist—it will better your chances of the song getting picked up. Do the same for the other drum parts, too, unless you are trying to start your own trend, or expect to catch some flak for not going along with industry norms.
