Drumming: Where do backbeats/snares go in 2/2 time

Question

In the vast majority of modern popular 4/4 music involving drum kits (jazz, hip hop, rock, country, etc.) the snare hits (or equivalent 'pat' noise) occur on the backbeats (2 and 4). Of course, like all music rules, there are lots of counter-examples, but this is the default placement of the snare hits, if you will.

What is the equivalent default snare placement in 2/2 time?
Do snare hits go on the 'and of 1' and the 'and of 2'?
Or on the '2' of every measure? - effectively halving the speed of the drum beat.

I know there is no hard and fast rule, but if you were to improvise a drum beat for a 2/2 song you had never heard before, where would you place the snare hits? How would you explain the practical difference between 2/2 vs 4/4 to a beginner drummer?

Answer 1

The time signature 4/4 means: each bar has 4 beats, and those beats are crotchets (quarter-notes). The strong beat is on 1, a medium beat is on 3, and beats 2 and 4 are both weak:

1 2 3 4
S w M w

The time signature 2/2 means: each bar has only 2 beats, and those beat are minims (half-notes). The strong beat is still on 1, and 2 is a weak beat:

1   2
S   w

NB: If the relative strengths of these beats is not apparent in some way, the time signature is largely meaningless.

Exercise 1

Count through the two patterns above out-loud, with significantly more emphasis on the strong, and significantly less on the weak beats.

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In a simple rock-style groove: the bass drum goes on strong and medium beats, and the snare goes on the weak (back)beats. The hi-hat pulses both on and between beats. Hitting the crash cymbal on 1 helps mark this as a strong beat.

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In the example below, the tempo indication changes from crotchet=100 to minim=50 (which is in some way equivalent). This halves the number of beats per minute (BMP) to maintain the duration of each note value.

Still, the difference between a single bar of 4/4 and two bars of 2/2 is somewhat subtle (two bars of 2/2 can sound like a slow bar of 4/4). It becomes more obvious when four bar phrases are considered. In the absence of other instruments (that say, play a chord every bar) adding fills solidifies the four bar phrase structure, and hence the "feeling" of the time signature.

To play-up the slower rate of beats, it also helps to keep the hi-hat pulses continuing with quavers. You can change the hi-hat pulses to crotchets (as above), but you'd have to be sure to really emphasise every beat 1 to be convincingly in 2/2 (unlike 4/4: every kick should get the same amount of strong emphasis in 2/2).

Exercise 2

Play a few repeats of each of the four bar phrases above on a drum kit (while counting in your head) and loop back the beginning without pausing in-between. Do this until 2/2 really feels like a different time signature. Then, try with crotchets on the hi-hat for the 2/2 section; it'll be harder to make it feel like four bar phrases of 2/2, but it is certainly possible if you get the relative emphasis right.

Answer 2

When there are 4 beats in the bar, 'Back Beat' is accenting 2 and 4.

It's a 4/4 thing. Or music that COULD be notated in 4/4. Asking where to put the back beat in a two-in-the bar time is like asking where to put the 'Viennese lilt' in a march. Not saying you COULDN'T, but it's a waltz thing. There's certainly no standard place to apply it to a march rhythm.

Answer 3

The question has fallen into the traps of thinking that the drum beat and back beat are based on quarter notes and that the drum beat necessarily corresponds to the time signature.

What's "really" happening with a back beat is that the drum plays on the weak beats within the larger metric structure, so every other pulse in a 2-based metric structure (or, potentially, every second and third pulse in a 3-based metric structure).

In 2-meter (2/2, 2/4, 2/8, ...) or 4-meter (4/2, 4/4, 4/8, ...) the back beat will occur on every other beat, with the exception of a double-time feel, in which case it will occur every other half-beat.

Said another way: it's impossible to tell from the back beat alone whether a rock song was written in 2/2, 4/4, 2/4, 4/2, etc., because popular music in general doesn't differentiate in the way Classical music tends to. (See @leftroundabout's answer, which much better conveys what I was trying to say in this final sentence.)

Answer 4

As Laurence Payne wrote, the question isn't answerable in a satisfactory way, because 2/2 meter isn't really a thing in the genres you asked about – very seldom will people say a piece is in 2/2 (or 2/4 for that matter), rather they think of it as being always in 4/4 with different tempo and emphasis. There's no convention for what it means when you do say 2/2 or 2/4.

However, historically those meters were used, and they did convey a meaning that was different from 4/4. So IMO it would make sense to look for historical analogues.

In classical music, 2/2 is typically used for movements (often marches or similar) in rapid tempo, where there is a relentless motion in crotchets but they are too fast to be really felt as the beat (or indicated by the conductor). That is quite the opposite effect of what you would get by playing a rock groove on drums with the snare once on each bar only, on “3” – which would generate instead a heavy, dragging feeling.

A better match to what 2/2 means to me could be a fairly simple rock groove with 2-and-4 backbeat, just making sure to emphasize beat 3 but not with the snare, something like

If you're going to put the snare on beat 3 but want it to be clearly 2/2 and not half-time 4/4, make sure to keep it marching. Perhaps the simplest way to do that is to add a 4-on-the-floor based kick.

Also don't be afraid to think out of the box. The snare doesn't have to fulfill a backbeat role. Actually it can be pretty cool to use it instead on all emphasized beats, i.e. on 1 and 3. For example in a metal context, you could do