Music with No Drums.....???

C

Chew_Bear

New member
This is going to sound stupid but I am confused....

What genre does music that has NO DRUMS belong to or is called...?

There is a lot of music that my friends and I like to listen to and they mainly only have...

1. Vocals
2. Acoustic Guitar
3. Backing Guitar
4. Piano
5. Sometimes a Pad
6. Sometimes an orchestral or other acoustic type inst.

Most of this kind of music has NO DRUMS. I would usually just classify them as 'Acoustic Pop'...'Acoustic Rock'...or...just simply 'Country' or 'Love Songs' if the lyrics have to do with love or relationships.

But...I was wondering if there is an actual specific genre that is usually affixed or labeled to music that specifically has no drums.

For example...can you label it as 'Acoustic Music' and call that a genre...?
 
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N9VPfvv6Hgk

Here is an example of what I am talking about. No Drums at all in the mix/production.

I would usually just label this as a 'love song' or just your average basic 'pop' or 'country' genre and call it good.

But...my head got the better of me and I was wondering if you would actually put this kind of music in a whole different genre because it has no drums in its composition/production.
 
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Music without drums is simply that-- music without drums. There is no genre or stylistic term that I'm aware of. I'd call what you posted a piano ballad. The types of popular tunes that might have a higher percentage of "drumless" arrangements include folk, classical, light classical (pop), and some types of "singer-songwriter"/ballad oriented music. Also various sub-genres of World music, depending on the place of origin and tradition, and bluegrass and some types of traditional (old) country music (drums were originally banned at the Grand Old Opry). But most people wouldn't classify music based solely on whether or not it has a drumset in the arrangement. Some DJ's might, however, as they tend to do things a little differently, such as grouping music by tempo/BPM and key.

GJ

PS-- Back in the 90's, there was a phase where everyone was trying to do "unplugged" versions of their songs, focusing on acoustic arrangements, so that's another way you could look at it, and another search term you could use...
 
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rhythmgj said:
Music without drums is simply that-- music without drums. There is no genre or stylistic term that I'm aware of. I'd call what you posted a piano ballad. The types of popular tunes that might have a higher percentage of "drumless" arrangements include folk, classical, light classical (pop), and some types of "singer-songwriter"/ballad oriented music. Also various sub-genres of World music, depending on the place of origin and tradition, and bluegrass and some types of traditional (old) country music (drums were originally banned at the Grand Old Opry). But most people wouldn't classify music based solely on whether or not it has a drumset in the arrangement. Some DJ's might, however, as they tend to do things a little differently, such as grouping music by tempo/BPM and key.

GJ

PS-- Back in the 90's, there was a phase where everyone was trying to do "unplugged" versions of their songs, focusing on acoustic arrangements, so that's another way you could look at it, and another search term you could use...
Click to expand...

Piano Ballad huh...?

Wow...I feel really stupid and naive because I originally come from a DJ background and not a producer one. Us (I) DJ's...would just basically 'lump' this type of song into something more broad/general (e.g. Country, Love, Pop etc.) in order to make organization as easy and simple as can be.
 
On a side note...(From both a DJ and Production stand point)...

How do you figure out the BPM of a song that has NO DRUMS and it's obviously not a mainstream/popular song and therefore you can't just google/research/look up the BPM at all for life's sake...?

How do I find out the time signature...? Would it be safe to just call it 4/4 and call it good...?

Is it pretty easy to find out the time sig and BPM of any song without any means of music theory, instruments or tools/gadgets at all (obviously because you don't have any of these handy/atm)...?
 
You have to find the pulse, whether there is a drumset outlining it or not. Most pop music is going to be in 4/4. If you listen to the opening piano notes of the song you posted, you can hear that they seem to fall on the quarter-note beat, which will give you a clue to the tempo. BPM= beats per minute...

GJ
 
From a composition/arrangement/recording perspective...Even if the producer or singer/songwriter already knows ahead of time that the song will have no drums and is unplugged or Acoustic...

1. Do they usually still put in a drum beat/track anyways for timing so that the recording of the vocals and acoustical instruments is still on beat during the recording phase...? Or...do they just "wing it" and record 'freestyle'...?

2. Do they have a drummer play during the session but just not recording it...? Or do they just feed a pre-recorded drum beat/track into the headphones of the singer...?
 
rhythmgj said:
You have to find the pulse, whether there is a drumset outlining it or not. Most pop music is going to be in 4/4. If you listen to the opening piano notes of the song you posted, you can hear that they seem to fall on the quarter-note beat, which will give you a clue to the tempo. BPM= beats per minute...

GJ
Click to expand...

If your willing to lend me your time, experience and expertise...

What bpm/tempo would you say is the song that I posted/referenced at....?
 
It depends on the situation, the song, and the producer. Sometimes it might just be piano and/or guitar, others times it might have a "click track" (audible metronome) to play to. If a lot of instruments are going to be overdubbed later, it is going to be played with a click. If it's literally only piano (or some other instrument there at the time), and the player or players have decent "time" (a good sense of rhythm), then maybe they'd go without a click.

I've never heard of anyone using a drummer as a click track, and not actually recording them to use in the arrangement. That would be a giant waste when you could patch-in a drum machine, or use a plug-in like EZ Drummer.

GJ
 
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From a composition stand point...

When listening to a song and trying to decipher the producer's production process...

1. How do you know if the producer used a real acoustic guitar (recorded in house)...OR...did they use something like a guitar plugin and midi (NI Kontakt Scarbee, Spectrasonics Trillian, IK Multimedia Amplitube etc.)...?
 
You can use a metronome to try and match it up, but a more fun way for a DJ would be to get a drum track that you know is 72-75 BPM, and see if you can line them up. Obviously, even though at the same tempo, they won't be synced, so the sync-up will be fleeting. But it will give you a good idea if you were right.

You can get pretty good at this with practice. I just use a metronome as an easy way of doing it most of the time, but I used to work with one conductor that did it with his analog watch; he just watched the second hand, counted out the beats, and came up with pretty accurate tempos.

As far as whether certain instruments are "real"/acoustic recordings or samples/synthesized, it's getting harder and harder to tell, and some producers that really care about their sounds have tricks they use to make samples sound real (and vice-versa). Listen for strumming patterns, finger squeeks, harmonics, and pick noises. These all _usually_ indicate real acoustic guitars (but they can be faked by good programmers).

GJ
 
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