How to get better at Finger Drumming | SP-404 Beat Making Tutorial

In this video I breakdown one of my Finger Drumming practice routines on the Roland SP-404A which I've found has helped a lot in developing my style.

0:18 This exercise uses a sampled drum break than has been chopped into 12 samples.
0:57 Learn how to play the drum break, as close as you can to the original sample. This takes time but gets easier each time you do it. If it's a hard beat I would start by trying to play it with just one kick, snare and hat...then try to progress to using all 12 samples to get more variation and dynamics into the performance.
1:17 Practice recording using Resample to recreate the drum break. Start trying to nail a one bar loop, then two and then four. The trick to this is trying to stay in time for 4 bars and being able to strike the REC button to stop recording at the perfect time so the new beat loops cleanly.
2:52 Practice recording using the Pattern Sequencer. Jamming to a click or metronome is the only way to tighten up your rhythm and the PS is BRUTALLY honest. Setup a 1 bar pattern with quantize off at a tempo you feel comfortable with. Once recording I find it really useful to hit REC to go into Rehersal mode and just jam to get the feel. Once ready, hit REC again and have a crack at it. If the first take doesn't go well, hit DEL (without stopping) and hold down the pads to clear the recording.
When a pattern isn't looping cleanly (I left this take unedited to show how many times I mess up and what I'm thinking to tighten up) usually it means the first kick (on beat 1) was slow/late or the last snare (on beat 4) was fast/early. Some days this doesn't come easy...just saddle up for the ride, it feels good when you get there.
Once you've nailed 1 bar, tackle 2 or 4 bars.

Let me know how this goes for you! If you have any Q's about this or other ways you practice feel free to get at me in the comments.



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