UK garage: a practice guide

What it is

UK garage is dance music that took shape in Britain, and in London above all, during the mid-1990s. Its roots are in American garage house, a soulful, vocal style of house music named after a New York club. British DJs played those records faster and with more weight in the low end. Producers followed, and a distinct sound emerged that spread through club nights and pirate radio, where MCs talked and rhymed over the records.

Around the turn of the millennium it crossed into the pop charts. It also split into branches, including the four-to-the-floor speed garage and the broken-beat 2-step, and it fed directly into later British styles such as grime, dubstep and bassline. It has never gone away, and new producers keep coming back to it.

How it sounds

• The shuffle. Hi-hats and percussion are swung, so the off-beat sixteenths land late. This is the single most recognisable thing about the style.
• Deep bass. The bassline is felt as much as heard, often a rounded sub-bass that moves in short, syncopated phrases.
• Chopped vocals. Vocal phrases are cut up, repitched and rearranged into new rhythms, alongside full R&B-style vocals.
• Space. The arrangement leaves gaps. The groove comes from where sounds don’t land as much as where they do.

Tempo and feel

UK garage sits in a narrow band, 130 to 138 BPM, most often 130 to 135. Tempo is less important than swing. Two tracks at the same BPM can feel completely different depending on how late the off-beat sixteenths fall. On the garage.fm metronome, the swing control sets exactly this: start at 60 to 65%.

How to practise it

For drummers and percussionists. Set four clicks per beat, swing at about 62%, tempo 132. Play the hi-hat on every click and listen to how the pairs lean. Then drop the swing to 50% and back up again until you can hear and play the difference without the click.

For producers. Programme a hat pattern against the swung click and compare it with your sequencer’s swing setting. The numbers rarely match between tools, so trust your ears over the percentage.

For MCs and vocalists. Practise riding the shuffle. Rap or sing a simple line over the swung click at a slow tempo, about 110 BPM, until the phrasing sits in the pocket, then bring it up to speed.

For DJs. Use tap tempo to find a track’s BPM by ear, and check it against the display on your gear. It’s a quick way to train your sense of tempo for beatmatching by ear.