Drum & Bass Break drum pattern
A rolling two-bar drum-and-bass break: the two-step kick on 1 and the and of 3, hard 2-and-4 snares, ghost notes either side of beat 3 and on the a of 4, short hat lifts and bar-two kick pickups. Press Play to hear it with a sampled drum kit at 174 BPM, change the tempo or swing, and follow every hit on the grid.
How to count the Drum & Bass Break
Count it as: 1 e & a 2 e & a 3 e & a 4 e & a · two bars. The pattern is a 2-bar phrase in 4/4 (16th-note grid).
The Drum & Bass Break pattern, hit by hit
Each character is one step of the grid and each group is one beat. X is an accented hit, x a normal hit, o a quiet or ghost note and - a rest.
| Voice | Bar 1 | Bar 2 |
|---|---|---|
| Kick | X--- ---- --X- ---- | X-x- ---- --Xx ---- |
| Snare | ---- X--- ---- X--- | ---- X--- ---- X--- |
| Ghost snare | ---- ---o -o-- ---o | ---- ---o -o-- ---o |
| Closed hat | xooo o-o- xooo o-o- | xooo o-o- xooo o-o- |
| Open hat | ---- ---x ---- ---- | ---- ---x ---- ---x |
Tempo and feel
The snare is the landmark. Kicks should cut around it, while the hands stay light enough for the break to roll instead of becoming a straight rock loop. The default tempo is 174 BPM. Slow it down until every hit is controlled, then raise the tempo a few BPM at a time.
How to practise the Drum & Bass Break
Learn the kick on 1 and the and of 3 against the snare at half tempo. Keep the ghost notes on the a of 2, the e of 3 and the a of 4 below the snare instead of turning them into a roll. Add the bar-two kicks on the and of 1 and the a of 3, then loop both bars before increasing the tempo.
Variations to try next
Mute the second-bar pickup kicks. Move the open hat to closed hat. Hear the same backbeat under a half-time bass line.
Where to hear this feel
Records in this family include Photek - Ni-Ten-Ichi-Ryu, Goldie - Inner City Life and Roni Size - Brown Paper Bag. A two-bar drum-and-bass study built on the two-step, the kick-and-snare skeleton at the heart of 90s drum and bass: kick on 1 and the and of 3, a hard snare on 2 and 4, ghost notes around the backbeat and short offbeat hat lifts, with extra kicks in bar two. It is a playable style study, not a note-for-note transcription of one recording.