Seeking songwriter opinions (specifically adding drums)

[dwmichaels]

While I know what drums are, I have a really hard time creating a drum pattern for any guitar rhythms/riffs I might come up with.

And now that I think about it - I don't hang out with any musicians to ask...

What do you guys do when you're songwriting? Start with a basic pattern? A go-to genre/style? You use loops or drum machine, etc?

 

[GregBroChill69]

A lot of people around here use MIDI drums (Superior Drummer 2.0, Steven Slate, etc..). I'm in the same boat as you man, I would have so many songs recorded right now if I could come up with decent sounding drum beats. I have Superior Drummer 2.0 but I'm not exactly a drummer.

 

[swervedriver]

I write out most things in Guitar Pro and I usually have some kind of idea for a basic drumbeat, so I enter that. Then for writing new parts of the song at first I tend to copy-paste the basic drumbeat as a guideline. Later on I'll revisit those drum parts and make them a bit nicer before sending the whole thing to our drummer, who then uses my written parts as a guide to what he thinks the drum parts should be. Same thing applies to how I write bass parts and vocal lines.

 

[UnsungHeroGuitars]

I have a really hard time creating a drum pattern for any guitar rhythms/riffs I might come up with.

Do you use a computer & sequencing software..?

If so, check out Superior Drummer and their Songwriter MIDI Packs

 

[Ron_R]

I jam on my guitar to a tempoed click track on Garageband. Once I figure out what tempo I like, I put a drum loop down from EZ Drummer which interfaces nicely with Garageband and off I go!

I generally end up rerecording the guitar part a few times to get the timing just right. Then I add bass and keyboards.