UK drill drum pattern

The pattern, step by step

Each step is a sixteenth note, four to a beat: step 1 is beat 1, 5 is beat 2, 9 is beat 3 and 13 is beat 4. A lit square is a hit; a fainter one is played softer.

How UK drill drums go

A two-bar phrase, straight (no swing): the snare (layered with a clap) on beat 3 of bar 1, then moved to beat 4 in bar 2; very few kicks, hit hard: beat 1 of bar 1 (and the "and" of 4), then beat 1, the "and" of 2 and the "and" of 4 in bar 2; hi-hats in 3-3-2 groups of sixteenths (steps 1, 4, 7, 9, 12, 15 of each bar) with gaps, accents on each group's first hit, one short thirty-second roll at the end of the phrase, never trap's steady hats and constant triplet rolls; a quiet rim after the snare and one choked open hat.

The bass, chords and sounds are on the Drill page.

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