Funky Drummer drum pattern
Clyde Stubblefield's lean James Brown pocket with the open-hat punctuation, syncopated kick and quiet snare conversation left audible. Press Play to hear it with a sampled drum kit at 99 BPM, change the tempo or swing, and follow every hit on the grid.
How to count the Funky Drummer
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 (two-bar swung 16th-note break).
The Funky Drummer 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- -xx- |
| Snare | ---- X--- ---- X--- | ---- X--- ---- X--- |
| Ghost snare | -o-o ---o -o-o ---o | -o-o --oo --oo ---o |
| Closed hat | xooo x-oo xooo x-oo | xooo x-oo xooo x-oo |
| Open hat | ---- -x-- ---- -x-- | ---- -x-- ---- -x-- |
| Pedal hat | ---- -o-- ---- -o-- | ---- -o-- ---- -o-- |
Tempo and feel
Low, dry and conversational. The kick pushes forward, the backbeat stays heavy, and the ghosts should never turn into a roll. The default tempo is 99 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 Funky Drummer
Play the 16th-note hat hand alone. Add the kick without raising the ghost notes. Open the hats briefly on the e of 2 and e of 4, then close them cleanly.
Variations to try next
Remove the second-bar kick pickups. Keep only the backbeat and hats. Move the open hats to a ride-bell study.
Where to hear this feel
Records in this family include James Brown - Funky Drummer, Clyde Stubblefield - bonus beat reprise and The Bomb Squad - breakbeat vocabulary. Reference-informed two-bar study of Clyde Stubblefield's pocket: one-handed 16ths, open hats on the e of 2 and e of 4, strong 2 and 4, and a restrained ghost-note lattice. The improvised surrounding break is not claimed note-for-note.