Extension: Amen Break
Last updated
Last updated
A drum break, or break, is a short section in a piece of music where (normally) all of the other instruments drop out, except for the drummer.
Here is a famous one:
In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Hip Hop DJs were playing their old Disco, Soul and Funk records. They realised that dancers really enjoyed the breaks in those records.
12-inch vinyl records. You played them on a turntable. The vinyl record has tiny grooves that are sometimes shallow and sometimes deep. As the needle on tonearm runs through the groove, the needle moves up and down to follow the groove, and this movement is turned back into sound.
Actually, it's much more complicated than that. For starters, the needle actually moves side to side as well as up and down. Also, the needle works through electromagnetism.
You can read more about this online. Here is an amazing video of the needle in the groove. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GuCdsyCWmt8
A break might only last 20 seconds. How could you keep the break going on and on and keep people dancing, if the break was over so soon?
The solution was two have two record players, not one. Once the break is over on one record, you can switch to the other record.
But that means you only hear the break twice?
No. This is how it worked:
Play the break on Turntable 1
Play the break on Turntable 2
Whilst the break on Turntable 2 is playing, spin Turntable 1 backwards to the start of the break.
Play the break on Turntable 1 again.
Whilst the break on Turntable 1 is playing again, spin Turntable 2 backwards to the start of the break ready to play again...
and again and again..
This required a huge amount of skill. If you don't spin the record back exactly right, you won't catch the start of the break again.
Here is the pattern for the Amen Break, minus the cymbal parts. Can you re-create it in Song Maker?
Click this link. I have done the first 2 beats of the first bar. Can you finish it? Don't forget the first bar happens twice!
If you've made the Amen Break, copy the link and send it Mr Reed on Teams Chat.
Why not have a go at some other famous drum rhythms?
