Drum & Bass Break drum pattern
A rolling two-bar drum-and-bass break with hard 2-and-4 snares, syncopated kick pickups, ghosted hand detail and short hat lifts. Press Play to hear it with a sampled drum kit at 174 BPM, change the tempo or swing, and follow every hit on the grid.
How to count the Drum & Bass Break
Count it as: 1 e & a 2 e & a 3 e & a 4 e & a · two bars. The pattern is a 2-bar phrase in 4/4 (16th-note grid).
The Drum & Bass Break 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 --x- X--x --x- | X-x- -x-- X-x- -x-x |
| Snare | ---- X--- ---- X--- | ---- X--- ---- X--- |
| Ghost snare | ---- -o-- --o- ---o | ---o ---o ---o ---o |
| Closed hat | xooo o-o- xooo o-o- | xooo o-o- xooo o-o- |
| Open hat | ---- ---x ---- ---- | ---- ---x ---- ---x |
Tempo and feel
The snare is the landmark. Kicks should cut around it, while the hands stay light enough for the break to roll instead of becoming a straight rock loop. The default tempo is 174 BPM. Slow it down until every hit is controlled, then raise the tempo a few BPM at a time.
How to practise the Drum & Bass Break
Learn the snare anchors and kick skeleton at half tempo. Keep the ghost notes below the snare instead of turning them into a roll. Loop both bars before increasing the tempo.
Variations to try next
Mute the second-bar pickup kicks. Move the open hat to closed hat. Hear the same backbeat under a half-time bass line.
Where to hear this feel
Records in this family include The Winstons - Amen Brother, Goldie - Inner City Life and Roni Size - Brown Paper Bag. A two-bar authored drum-and-bass study built from the genre's break grammar: a firm snare on 2 and 4, syncopated kicks around those anchors, ghosted hand detail and short offbeat hat lifts. It is a playable style study, not a note-for-note transcription of one recording.