Day 19: Four on the Floor & Quantization

Work Session: Part 1 — Four on the Floor

“Four on the floor” is one of the most common drum patterns in popular music. The kick drum plays on every beat — 1, 2, 3, 4 — and you’ll hear it in house, disco, rock, and pop. Today you’ll build it up one drum at a time by playing the notes into GarageBand instead of clicking them in.

Partner Protocol

You and your table-mate will coordinate on the MIDI controller. Decide who goes first:

• Round 1 (Kick drum): One of you uses the MIDI controller, the other uses Musical Typing — each on your own computer.
• Swap after the kick is recorded.
• Round 2 (Snare drum): Switch input methods. The person who typed now uses the controller, and vice versa.

This way everyone gets a turn with the controller in the same project.

Musical Typing

Musical Typing is GarageBand’s on-screen MIDI controller — it turns the letter row of your keyboard into piano keys so you can play MIDI without a physical controller.

• Open it with Window → Musical Typing or the shortcut Command + K.
• The keys A through L (and their neighbors) act like white and black keys on a piano.
• Use the Z and X keys to shift octaves down or up — drums live around C1, so you’ll need to shift down.

See the MIDI Mappings page if you forget a note.

Build the Beat — One Track at a Time

We’ll follow along with Mr. Willingham. Each track is four measures long. Today we are recording Tracks 1 and 2 — Tracks 3 and 4 come on Friday.

1. Track 1 — Kick drum (C1): Quarter notes on every beat. Count “1 — 2 — 3 — 4” for four full measures. (swap input methods after this track)
2. Track 2 — Snare drum (D1): Add a new Software Instrument track. Play the snare on beats 2 and 4 for four measures. This is the “backbeat.”
3. Track 3 — Closed hi-hat (F#1): (Friday) Add another track. Play straight eighth notes — “1 & 2 & 3 & 4 &” — for four measures.
4. Track 4 — Your choice: (Friday) Pick any drum or cymbal you like — crash (C#2), ride (Eb2), open hi-hat (Bb1), a tom, anything. Play a simple repeating pattern for four measures.

Listen back after each track. Don’t worry if it isn’t perfect — we’ll fix the timing in Part 2.

Work Session: Part 2 — Quantization

What is Quantization?

When you play a beat by hand, your hits almost never land exactly on the beat — you’re usually a little early or a little late. Quantization is a tool that snaps every MIDI note to the nearest point on a grid. The grid is usually measured in note values — 1/4 notes, 1/8 notes, or 1/16 notes. After you quantize, every note sits perfectly in time.

Quantization is Like Rounding in Math

Think of quantization as rounding for music.

• In math, rounding 3.7 to the nearest whole number gives you 4. Rounding 3.2 gives you 3.
• In GarageBand, if your snare hit lands at beat 2.07, quantization “rounds” it down to beat 2. If it lands at 1.94, it rounds up to beat 2.

The grid value you choose is like the place value you’re rounding to:

• 1/4 note grid = big rounding. Every note jumps to the nearest quarter note. Tight, locked-in, robotic.
• 1/8 note grid = medium rounding. Good for hi-hats and most grooves.
• 1/16 note grid = small rounding. Keeps more of the human feel but still fixes bad hits.

A smaller grid (1/16) leaves more of your playing intact. A larger grid (1/4) forces everything into place.

How to Quantize in GarageBand

1. Click your recorded region to select it.
2. Open the Piano Roll editor (press E or double-click the region in the timeline).
3. On the left side of the editor, find the Time Quantize menu.
4. Pick a note value:
   • Kick and snare → 1/4 Note works well.
   • Closed hi-hat → 1/8 Note (since they are straight eighths) — you’ll use this on Friday.
   • Your choice track → depends on what you play — you’ll decide on Friday.
5. Watch the notes snap onto the grid. Press spacebar and listen — it should sound tighter.

Do this for both tracks today (kick and snare). You’ll quantize the hi-hat and your choice track on Friday.