Funeral Doom Dirge drum pattern
A slow two-bar funeral doom dirge: a crash and kick on 1, one snare on beat 3, ride quarters between them and a kick pickup on the and of 4 in bar two. Press Play to hear it with a sampled drum kit at 56 BPM, change the tempo or swing, and follow every hit on the grid.
How to count the Funeral Doom Dirge
Count it as: 1 & 2 & 3 & 4 & · two bars. The pattern is a 2-bar phrase in 4/4 (two-bar straight half-time dirge).
The Funeral Doom Dirge 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 |
| Snare | -- -- X- -- | -- -- X- -- |
| Open hat | X- -- -- -- | X- -- -- -- |
| Ride | -- x- x- x- | -- x- x- x- |
Tempo and feel
Vast and patient. Let every crash ring into the silence; the hardest part is not rushing the long gaps. The default tempo is 56 BPM. Slow it down until every hit is controlled, then raise the tempo a few BPM at a time.
How to practise the Funeral Doom Dirge
Play only the crash and kick on 1 and the snare on 3, counting every and aloud. Add the ride on beats 2, 3 and 4. Add the kick pickup in bar two and land beat 1 exactly on time.
Variations to try next
Leave out the ride for a barer bar. Play a slow tom fill across beat 4 of bar two. Crash on beat 3 with the snare for the heaviest part.
Where to hear this feel
Records in this family include Funeral doom from the 1990s on. A practice study of funeral doom drumming at a crawl: a crash and kick on beat 1 of every bar, one snare on beat 3, the ride on beats 2, 3 and 4 and a single kick on the and of 4 in bar two to lean into the next phrase. It is straight, where the library's Stoner Doom Crawl swings in triplets. The open hi-hat stands in for the crash. The ride quarters and the bar-two kick pickup are informed choices; many records leave even more space, with only the crash and snare. It is authored for practice, not transcribed.