Press Play for a blues shuffle drum beat at 100 BPM. It starts with Southern Soul Shuffle, and you can switch to When the Levee Breaks, Purdie Shuffle, Fool in the Rain Shuffle, Texas Blues-Rock Shuffle, Rosanna Shuffle and Soul Ballad (12/8 Feel). One beat lasts 600 ms.
Playing over a blues shuffle drum beat at 100 BPM
100 BPM is a comfortable middle tempo for blues shuffle. Use it to play whole songs or long improvisations without stopping; the fills every few bars tell you where each phrase ends.
What plays at 100 BPM
Southern Soul Shuffle is written at 112 BPM, the closest of this style's grooves to 100 BPM, so it opens first and plays a little slower than written. In 4/4 at this tempo a quarter note lasts 600 ms, an eighth note 300 ms and a sixteenth 150 ms, which is the spacing of the hi-hat you hear. Switch to When the Levee Breaks, Purdie Shuffle, Fool in the Rain Shuffle, Texas Blues-Rock Shuffle, Rosanna Shuffle and Soul Ballad (12/8 Feel) on the page and the tempo stays at 100 BPM.
How long is a phrase at 100 BPM?
Knowing how long a phrase lasts helps you plan a song, a solo or a recording take. The drums play a fill at the end of every four or eight bars, so these are the lengths you will hear.
Phrase lengths at 100 BPM
Length
Time
One bar of 4/4
2.4 seconds
Four-bar phrase
9.6 seconds
Eight-bar section
19 seconds
Twelve-bar blues chorus
29 seconds
Three-minute song
about 75 bars
How a blues shuffle drum beat works
A shuffle divides each beat into three and plays the first and last parts: long-short, long-short. Your part should swing the same way. If you play straight eighths over a shuffle, the band sounds like it is arguing with itself.
How to play along
Play a twelve-bar blues over it: four bars of I, two of IV, two of I, then V, IV, I, V. Guitarists can use the classic boogie shape on the lowest strings and swing every pair of notes. Count "one-and-a two-and-a" to feel the triplets.