Our mission here at Reverb is to make the world a more musical place. To us, this means not only building a marketplace where musicians all around the world can buy and sell all kinds of music and music gear, but also fostering a community where musicians are empowered to learn and explore their instruments further. Luckily for the music world, we're far from alone in this mission.
Our friends over at Tom Tom Magazine have been dedicated to supporting and fostering a community of female and gender non-conforming drummers, producers, and beatmakers since the publication's founding in 2009. In the past year, we have collaborated with the Tom Tom team on 30 Second Rhythms, an ongoing series of 30-second instructional drumming videos that have been published on both Reverb’s and Tom Tom's Instagram accounts.
Shot and directed by Becca Farsace, each of the latest 30 Second Rhythms videos features a short lesson from Ela Minus, a Colombian born and raised beatmaking master currently based in New York. In these lessons, she shows us how to use a minimal setup to unlock maximum rhythmic potential, utilizing only a drum machine and a small modular rig to create memorable (and highly danceable) beats.
In the first video, Ela Minus kicks things into gear by creating a simple dance beat on her Elektron Analog Rytm sequencer (processed by her modular rig) and proves that with minimal equipment, you can still get the party started.
In this installment, Ela (accompanied by her muse, Harriet) builds on the basics from lesson one and uses her Elektron Analog Rytm to create the beat of her original song, “Ceremony.” By selecting her preferred samples, adding some personal touches, and programming the sequence, the only thing left to do... is dance.
In the final video of the series, Ela once again makes use of her Elektron Analog Rytm to show us how she employs outside processing gear (in this case, a small modular rig consisting of a low-pass/high-pass filter, a compressor, and delay) to craft her unique sounds and personalize her setup.
Watch more 30 Second Drum Lessons and learn more about beatmaking in our articles below.