Tasting the ingredients of dance music
As we have explored in this chapter, the most essential part of dance music is the rhythm and the bass. All other elements are important in relation to how they interact with those very essential components. That said, I'd like to list the most commonly used instruments in dance music, so that later on when we are creating our projects, you'll be familiar with them.
Drums
The drums you hear in dance music are related to the drum kit that you've seen rocking on stage with bands of various kinds. When we refer to drums in the electronic music world, we still use terminology from the acoustic world of drums. The surface of the drum that we hit with sticks is called a head.
The bass drum
The bass drum is the most important drum in dance music. It has a very low tone that provides the heartbeat of dance music. It's played using a pedal that has a beater attached to it. When the pedal is pressed down, the beater hits the drum. This is what...