# Guitar player guide to making ez drum tracks?



## vejichan (Feb 15, 2015)

I'm not a drum player ...just a guitar player with ez drummer 2 and a few expansions. I Just want to fill I the missing part in my recording with drums ...but they have to fit the song. I don't....don't want to spend 10 hrs programming drums mainly because I don't know what I am doing or know anything about drumming. For people like me..who just wants to fill in the missing space that's drums in your music...what's your approach?
Here is my formula
Intro drum fill, 7 grooves and a fill..repeat and pick a different groove and fills b4 prechhorus, chorus, solo and ending fill.


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## Ulvhedin (Feb 16, 2015)

vejichan said:


> don't want to spend 10 hrs programming drums mainly because I don't know what I am doing or know anything about drumming.



You just answered your own question. There's no shortcut if you don't know anything about drumming,but to learn it.

I learned it the long and slow way, but there's plenty of good tutorials on YT on how to structure songs and build grooves.


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## Rizzo (Feb 17, 2015)

Yeah there's no shortcut sadly.
I have drums at my place so I can noodle on them and this helps immensely in thinking like a drummer and getting ideas down, still it's a pain in the ass to transcribe stuff on EZ exactly how it is in my head.
Just keep trying!

The easiest thing you could try if you don't have a drumkit available is listen to a lot of music and play close attention, and air drumming too. Seems stupid but helps a lot. Just pretend you're the drummer and focus on what you're hearing.

Also, for songwriting reference, keep in mind a "fill" is named like that for a reason.
A "groove" is the backbone of the drum section, a "fill" is just something that -indeed- "fills" some sections to provide better variety, or as a transition between a groove and another.
Start from the basics, think simple. Just lay down a solid groove. You'll be always able to "fill" it in at whatever point 
Then work your way through the arrangement with groove changes, tempo changes, or whatever. Fills are just the icing on the cake, take care of the actual cake first.


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## Rojne (Mar 21, 2015)

Earlier I programmed drum-midi's in guitar pro, but that sucks nowdays so I had to rework my strategy..

So I use the midi-tracks that comes with EZDrummer 2 and edit them to my liking, works like a charm!

https://youtu.be/YEJH3WM6Oz8?list=PL5323002DC14308B9

(Youtube vid's doesn't seem to work here, but it's a "Drum tracks in 5 min" that Ola Englund has made with the use of EZDrummer 2)


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## TommyG (Mar 26, 2015)

EZ Drummer 2 has some song templates that you can use as a guide.
Between that and the "Tap to find" feature I find it very useful.


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## Chi (Mar 27, 2015)

Yeah I just tend to listen to some drum parts I find groovy and try to wrap my head around them. 

I couldn't program drums for .... 2 years ago, now I think it's passable for what I do, guitar driven music. Just try to add as many details as you can, it can really spice up your song.

Try not to make it sound like a tape-record repeating itself over 8 bars, you have tons of cymbals, use 'em. Accent guitar riffs, add ghost notes, different velocities, all that makes programmed drums sound so much better.


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## BaptizedBurning (Mar 29, 2015)

The Drumkit From Hell loops are always helpful. You can piece together a whole song with just those, or at least look at them to see how they're structured. You can also watch the midi drum tracks in guitar pro files to get an idea of how it looks.


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