The first of five electronic dance music terms to know is the drum pad. Now for most beginners, this might not sound all that important, however, trust me when I say it is. Without the correct drum pad set up, you will have no groove. This is true regardless of whether you are scratching looping or slapping. This is the reason learning to properly handle an electronic beat sequencer is vital.
Another of the major electronic dance music terms to master is bass lines. A bass line is what is heard when a song’s beat is kick drummed. It is also what is heard when a song’s drum loop is played. Technically, it can be defined as the rhythm that is created during the stop and go movement of a drum pad. This term is used interchangeably with the word bass.
Drum automation is another one of the major electronic dance music terms to learn. This term refers to the automation of a sound within a drum machine. A typical electronic drumset has some way to trigger and stop each drum beat. With this concept in mind, automation means “to automate.” To play a bass line with the drum machine, you have to set up an automation set up on the actual drum pad.
The next five electronic dance music terms to understand are swing, rock, pop and hip-hop. A swing is a rhythmic dance pattern where the beat is repeated across the entire length of a beat. Rock, on the other hand, is considered to be a repetitive beat with a repeating pattern that is either a bass line or simple rhythm guitar. Hip-hop uses two or more beats for a single rhythmic pattern. One example is Frenchies, which is a simple rhythm guitar attempt at a bluesy rock drum break.
One term that is often confusing in electronic dance music is bass line. It is an abbreviation for bass drum. This term is also commonly confused with drum loop, yet they are completely different things. A drum loop merely refers to the percussion sounds created by an electronic music program like a drum module or sampler. On the other hand, a bass line refers to a repetitive bass drum sound. A bass line is often found in rap and new age music.
Another common electronic dance music term is called a break. A break is any type of fill or looping that goes on and off throughout an entire electronic piece. For example, you would hear a break in a hip hop song, and then a break in a ballad. This term is used when a musical phrase or idea is repeated a number of times within a single composition.
Salsa is probably the most famous and well known of all electronic dance music terms. YouTube recently uploaded a video of the world’s newest salsa dancing sensation, Benito Zambrano, doing his own moves in the streets of Rio. It is very hard to fathom, considering that salsa is one of the simplest forms of dance music imaginable. But what is also hard to imagine is how somebody could master the basics of salsa quickly and easily, particularly when there are so many professionals out there who have been doing this for years. Salsa has even won many awards, most notably those for the Best New Music category at the Grammy Awards.
The best thing about habana blues is that it is easy to learn. There is a video available that demonstrates how to dance salsa. You can also listen to an audio example on YouTube. It is fairly difficult to imagine that you could ever get tired of watching this man waltz his way around the room while singing and dancing like a madman. One can only hope that he makes it to the Top 3 of the charts some day. It’s a wonderful song and will keep you partying all night long.
