Brush Ballad drum pattern
A slow two-bar brush ballad: a sweep through every beat, soft brush taps on 2 and 4, a feathered kick on 1 and 3, the hi-hat foot on 2 and 4 and a pickup tap at the end of bar two. Press Play to hear it with a sampled drum kit at 60 BPM, change the tempo or swing, and follow every hit on the grid.
How to count the Brush Ballad
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 swung triplet grid · left hand sweeps, right hand taps).
The Brush Ballad 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 | o-- --- o-- --- | o-- --- o-- --- |
| Pedal hat | --- o-- --- o-- | --- o-- --- o-- |
Tempo and feel
Hushed and unhurried, like breathing. The sweep never stops and never gets loud; the taps on 2 and 4 are the only thing the band should really hear. The default tempo is 60 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 Brush Ballad
Sweep the left brush in one slow circle per beat and count out loud. Add the right brush on 2 and 4 without the sweep changing speed. Add the feathered kick on 1 and 3 and the hi-hat foot on 2 and 4, then the bar-two pickup.
Variations to try next
Tap the right brush on all four beats for the bridge. Sweep half as fast, one circle every two beats, for the intro. Leave out the kick entirely for a piano solo.
Where to hear this feel
Records in this family include Miles Davis - Blue in Green (Jimmy Cobb) and John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman - My One and Only Love (Elvin Jones). A practice study of the slow jazz brush ballad, in the tradition of Jimmy Cobb on Miles Davis's Blue in Green and Elvin Jones behind John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman on My One and Only Love. It is a composite, not a transcription of either. The left brush stirs a sweep through every beat without lifting, the right brush taps 2 and 4, the kick is felt more than heard on 1 and 3, and bar two lifts the right brush on the let of 4 to lead back into the top.