UK Drill drum pattern
A two-bar UK drill pattern with a half-time snare, a displaced second-bar snare, skippy swung hat groups and sparse kicks where the sliding 808 would land. Press Play to hear it with a sampled drum kit at 142 BPM, change the tempo or swing, and follow every hit on the grid.
How to count the UK Drill
Count it as: 1 e & a 2 e & a 3 e & a 4 e & a · two bars, snare on 3. The pattern is a 2-bar phrase in 4/4 (two-bar swung 16th-note drill pocket).
The UK Drill 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--x ---- --X- ---x |
| Snare | ---- ---- X--- ---- | ---- ---- X--- -X-- |
| Closed hat | x-oo --o- x-oo --o- | x-oo --oo x-o- --oo |
Tempo and feel
Dark and sliding. The swung hat gaps create the menace; the displaced snare should feel late and deliberate, never like a mistake. The default tempo is 142 BPM. It plays with 58% swing by default; move the Swing control toward 50% to hear it straight. Slow it down until every hit is controlled, then raise the tempo a few BPM at a time.
How to practise the UK Drill
Play the hat groups alone with Swing on until the gaps feel fixed. Add the beat-3 snare in both bars. Add the second-bar e-of-4 snare last and keep beat 1 of the next bar steady.
Variations to try next
Move the displaced snare to the a of 4. Fill the hat gaps for a straighter feel. Add a kick on the and of 4 in bar one.
Where to hear this feel
Records in this family include Unknown T - Homerton B and Tion Wayne & Russ Millions - Body. A played-kit study of UK drill, which grew in South London in the 2010s from Chicago drill (Chief Keef, Young Chop) through groups such as 67 and Harlem Spartans and producers such as M1OnTheBeat: half-time snare on 3 with a displaced late snare in the second bar, skippy swung hats in broken groups, and sliding 808 bass expressed as sparse kick placements. It is a style study, not a transcription.