Deep House drum pattern
A one-bar deep house groove at 120 BPM: the kick on every beat, a soft clap on 2 and 4, open hats on the offbeats and a lightly shuffled 16th shaker. Press Play to hear it with a sampled drum kit at 120 BPM, change the tempo or swing, and follow every hit on the grid.
How to count the Deep 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 a shuffled shaker).
The Deep 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--- |
| Open hat | --x- --x- --x- --x- |
| Shaker | oooo oooo oooo oooo |
Tempo and feel
Warm and unhurried. Keep the clap well below the kick; the offbeat hat and the shaker carry the lift. The default tempo is 120 BPM. It plays with 54% 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 Deep House
Play the kick on all four beats and the soft clap on 2 and 4. Add the open hat on every and. Add the 16th shaker quietly, with the e and the a a touch late.
Variations to try next
Play the backbeat as a cross-stick rimshot instead of the clap. Take the Swing control toward 58 percent for a looser shaker. Drop the kick on beat 1 of every fourth bar.
Where to hear this feel
Records in this family include Late-1980s and 1990s Chicago, New York and New Jersey deep house. A practice study of classic deep house drum programming: the kick on all four beats, a soft clap on 2 and 4, an open hi-hat on every offbeat and a steady 16th shaker with a light shuffle. The kit approximates the programmed voices: the snare stands in for the clap, which many tracks replace with a rimshot or a finger snap, and the shaker stands in for the programmed shaker or tambourine loop. Congas, chords, bass and sidechain pumping are left out, and every hit sits on the grid. The 54 percent shuffle on the shaker is an informed choice. It is authored for practice, not transcribed.