basic dancehall beat

There is no way to explain how to make a dancehall beat. Dancehall is too broad and varied. you have to just listen to alot of Reggae/Dancehall music and come up with your own style.

There is no formula, you have to just feel it.. Dancehall is not like other music where they use the same drum patterns over and over..

Just try to find music from the 70's on up to see how Dancehall has progressed and you'll get the vibe and do you own thing. Check out how the riddims change from the slow and heavy one drop(80's and 70's) to the faster type beats today and the lyrics also.

find music from man like "U-Roy, michigan and Smiley, Sugar Minot, Yellowman, Barrington levy, Supercat, Early B, Lt Stichie, Shabba, Ninja Man, Buju, Beenie, Bounty Killa, Spragga, Sizzla, VybeZ kartel etc...
 
im a piss poor technical musician so take this with a grain of salt;

start by breaking down the basics of reggae, which *does* actually have a mathmatical logic to it (the "down" beat occurs on the 1 & 3 count, as opposed to rock and roll which accents the 2 & 4 count, something alone those lines).

i dont think many people can make dancehall beats without understanding the history and trends of reggae riddims, at least superficially.

once you get some familiarity with the major arcana of studio one cuts etc, you will start to hear certain musical 'phrases' or 'themes' pop up constantly in dancehall riddims.

also useful is recreating popular dancehall riddims in reason, for example. once you see them graphically represented, it makes it much easier to mutate and reconstruct into something that comes from a personal, meaningful place.

as opposed to reggaeton which comes from a spot approximately 2 inches south of the nuts.
 
just learn the 3-3-2 pattern an that puts u on the way.just check u tube for danchall beat tuturial videos.
 
Basic kick and snare.

Kick = K
Snare = S

K--K ---- K--K ----
---- --S- ---- --S-
 
Feel de riddim, feel de vibez, get ready it's bobsled time!!
Sorry, what I meant to say is sometims you just pick out a particular song that you would like to emulate, get in the groove, play it along with whatever program you use, and just do your thing.
Add your own twist to an already good formula,and you almost can't go wrong.

Hey KAIN, you got some nice stuff on your page. You got more on Soundclick?
 
Last edited:
in 100 tempo
K1 = First kick ( high volume )
K2 = Second kick ( med or low volume )
S = Snare

Basicly;

K1 - - - K1 - - - ...
- K2- K2 - - - K2-K2
- - - - - S - - - - - -S

Or listen a lot of reggae & dancehall musics.
 
ichi said:
...
as opposed to reggaeton which comes from a spot approximately 2 inches south of the nuts.
LMBAO!! You're crazy for that last part!!
Seriously... dancehall... has different styles, pending on the initial theme of the song. Then you have a lot of riddims that are pretty much universal and can have multiple artist doing different version of a song with the same riddim. With the different styles... find the common varibles that highlight the theme of these styles.
Let me try to break it down. Say for instance... your theme is sexually suggestive... you're not going to make a song that sounds as epic as a 'gangsta' riddim. Now, to know the difference... that's when you have to go out to a dancehall club, listen to multiple artist, go out and wine up with a big body gal... capture that vibe, hit the lab and produce.
I'll tell you straight up... the women are the best critics to determine if your riddim passes or fails... not some of these dudes. When I produce... I vision the man and woman... union on the dance floor. I'm not trying to cater my music to a bunch of hard ankles(unlike certain hiphop joints). The more you expose yourself to dancehall music, reggae, soca, roots, reggaeton, etc... and train your ears to know the distinctions... then you can go inside each genre and see the multiple styles... that relates to the theme of song structure.

The real technical challenge is emulating the multiple instruments that are used to capture 'that island vibe'. Out of respect... I would highly recommend learning how to capture the vibe of dancehall music first... before trying to make claims of redifining your first time attempts as... 'the new danchall sound'. Regardless of what you think you might see and hear in these videos and songs... "RESPECT" IS THE FIRST STEP. This is not hiphop... to which any new face tries to 'come in' and often tries to forge hiphop in their own image. The various different riddims that originate from outside the US... most have a traditional structure... and if you think that just anyone can 'claim jump' or 'bogart' your way on someone else's tradition... you can be in for one helluva shock.(this is why I love it so):D
 
The foundation of Dancehall Reggae Music is the Drum n Bass, after you have a solid foundation everything comes up by default, you can use a lot of compression on their bass lines and kick drums almost the same for the New York style, keyboards are the rithym part, most common structure is without bridge, most of them use a Third verse as a M8, they uses the lead melody on the chorus part and drops and mixes on verses, theres many dancehall styles, you can identify your self with 80's style it's with the 1 2 rock beat, or you can use the 90's style 3-3-2 or 2ks style with the accent on the first beat, most common sounds are strings, pianos, organs, squares, orchesta hit, brasses, in order to get a good vocal the techniques are differents, they uses one lead vocal, some chorus backing up the last word on the phrase and a backing vocal track filling spaces between lines or words. These are some tips for a Dancehall song.
 
Back
Top