Chicago Jack House drum pattern
A one-bar Chicago jack house groove: the kick on every beat, a clap on 2 and 4, open hats on the offbeats and shuffled closed 16th hats around them. Press Play to hear it with a sampled drum kit at 124 BPM, change the tempo or swing, and follow every hit on the grid.
How to count the Chicago Jack House
Count it as: 1 e & a 2 e & a 3 e & a 4 e & a. The pattern is one bar of 4/4 (one-bar 16th-note grid with shuffled closed hats).
The Chicago Jack House 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 | Pattern |
|---|---|
| Kick | X--- X--- X--- X--- |
| Snare | ---- X--- ---- X--- |
| Closed hat | xo-o xo-o xo-o xo-o |
| Open hat | --x- --x- --x- --x- |
Tempo and feel
Hypnotic and bouncing. The kick and clap never change level; the shuffle on the closed hats is what makes it jack. The default tempo is 124 BPM. It plays with 56% 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 Chicago Jack House
Play the kick on all four beats at one level, then add the clap on 2 and 4. Add the open hat on every and, closing it with the next closed hat. Fill in the closed hats and let the e and the a of each beat sit slightly late.
Variations to try next
Set the Swing control to 50 percent for straight machine 16ths. Drop the closed hats and keep only the offbeat open hats. Mute the kick for a bar as a breakdown, then bring it back on 1.
Where to hear this feel
Records in this family include Mid-1980s Chicago jack tracks programmed on drum machines. A practice study of mid-1980s Chicago jack house as it was programmed on drum machines: the kick on all four beats, a handclap on 2 and 4, an open hi-hat on every offbeat and closed 16th hats around it, with the e and the a of each beat pushed late by the machine shuffle. The kit approximates the machine voices: the snare stands in for the 808 or 909 handclap and the sampled acoustic hats for the machine hats, and the bass line and any acid synth line are left out. Every hit sits on the grid at a fixed level. The 56 percent shuffle is an informed choice; producers set it anywhere from straight to about 58 percent. It is authored for practice, not transcribed.