UK Garage 2-Step drum pattern
A two-bar UK garage 2-step groove: the kick on 1 and the and of 3 with beat 3 left empty, a snare on 2 and 4, and heavily shuffled hats on the and and the a. Press Play to hear it with a sampled drum kit at 132 BPM, change the tempo or swing, and follow every hit on the grid.
How to count the UK Garage 2-Step
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 (two-bar shuffled 16th-note 2-step).
The UK Garage 2-Step 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- ---- |
| Snare | ---- X--- ---- X--- | ---- X--- ---- X--- |
| Closed hat | --xo --xo --xo --xo | --xo --xo --xo ---o |
| Open hat | ---- ---- ---- ---- | ---- ---- ---- --x- |
Tempo and feel
Skippy and swung. The empty beat 3 makes the kick stumble forward; lean into the shuffle on the hats. The default tempo is 132 BPM. It plays with 61% 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 Garage 2-Step
Play the kick on 1 and the and of 3 only, leaving beat 3 empty. Add the snare on 2 and 4. Add the hats on the and and the a of each beat, letting the a fall late, and open the last and of bar two.
Variations to try next
Add a kick on the a of 2 for a busier bar. Set the Swing control to 50 percent to hear how much the shuffle carries. Add a cross-stick on the a of 4 as a rimshot pickup.
Where to hear this feel
Records in this family include Artful Dodger - Re-Rewind (The Crowd Say Bo Selecta), MJ Cole - Sincere and Sweet Female Attitude - Flowers. A practice study of late-90s UK garage 2-step, the London sound shaped by the chopped vocals of US producer Todd Edwards and revived in the 2020s by PinkPantheress: the kick on 1 and the and of 3 with beat 3 left empty, a snare on 2 and 4 and closed hats on the and and the a, the a pushed late by a 61 percent shuffle, an informed choice (producers use roughly 58 to 66). It is authored for practice, not transcribed.