Barrett-Style One Drop drum pattern
A two-bar Carlton Barrett-style one drop: an empty beat 1, kick and cross-stick together on 3, a swung hat with a triplet run on beat 4 and an open-hat bark in bar two. Press Play to hear it with a sampled drum kit at 74 BPM, change the tempo or swing, and follow every hit on the grid.
How to count the Barrett-Style One Drop
Count it as: 1 trip let 2 trip let 3 trip let 4 trip let · two bars. The pattern is a 2-bar phrase in 4/4 (two-bar eighth-note-triplet one drop).
The Barrett-Style One Drop 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-- --- |
| Ghost snare | --- --- --- --- | --- --- --- -o- |
| Cross-stick | --- --- X-- --- | --- --- x-- --- |
| Closed hat | x-o x-o x-o xoo | x-o x-o x-o x-- |
| Open hat | --- --- --- --- | --- --- --- --x |
| Pedal hat | o-- --- --- --- | --- --- --- --- |
Tempo and feel
Heavy and patient. The drop on 3 is the downbeat the band leans on; the hat triplets roll forward without rushing it. The default tempo is 74 BPM. It plays with 67% 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 Barrett-Style One Drop
Play the swung hat alone, including the bar-one triplet run on beat 4. Add kick and cross-stick together on beat 3 only; leave beat 1 empty. Add the bar-two open bark on the let of 4 and the foot closing it on 1.
Variations to try next
Play the triplet run in both bars. Move the cross-stick to a full snare for a chorus. Add a soft cross-stick on the let of 4 as a pickup.
Where to hear this feel
Records in this family include Bob Marley and the Wailers - Is This Love and Bob Marley and the Wailers - Waiting in Vain. A practice study of the roots one drop associated with Carlton Barrett: beat 1 left empty, kick and cross-stick together on beat 3, and a swung hi-hat that fills the gaps with a triplet run and a short open bark. Unlike the library's Reggae One Drop, which keeps a plain offbeat hat on a straight 16th grid, this study lives on the triplet grid with the let notes on the Swing control. The hat figures are a composite of the vocabulary, not one song's part; it is authored for practice, not transcribed.