There are many different ways to arrange a beat. Most beats have an intro, a couple of main sections, and an outro. There might also be a breakdown in the middle, where some of the main elements are removed to create suspense. Beats with a vocal might be arranged into “verse” and “chorus” sections.
For now, we’ve arranged our beat into two sections: a more stripped-back intro, followed by a “main” section that showcases all of our parts together.
To do this, we first duplicated our 4 bar loop a few times to create two sections of 8 bars each. Then, in the first of the two sections, we muted some key elements to create an introduction.
At first, only the chords and a couple of the drum layers can be heard. Halfway through the introduction, the bass line enters along with the hi-hat. In the second eight bars, the kick drum and melody enter to complete the beat. Gradually bringing in elements like this gives our beat variation and a sense of narrative.