Garage Rock Stomp drum pattern
A two-bar garage rock beat: a trashy half-open hat on every eighth, a pounding kick with a push on the and of 2, a hard backbeat and a crude three-note snare pickup. Press Play to hear it with a sampled drum kit at 132 BPM, change the tempo or swing, and follow every hit on the grid.
How to count the Garage Rock Stomp
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 trashy eighth-note garage beat).
The Garage Rock Stomp 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- ---- |
| Snare | ---- X--- ---- X--- | ---- X--- ---- X-xX |
| Open hat | x-x- x-x- x-x- x-x- | x-x- x-x- x-x- x--- |
Tempo and feel
Loud, simple and a bit careless. Nothing is subtle; the hat washes, the snare cracks and the pickup tumbles into the top. The default tempo is 132 BPM. Slow it down until every hit is controlled, then raise the tempo a few BPM at a time.
How to practise the Garage Rock Stomp
Play the washy eighth-note hat with the backbeat. Add the kick on 1, the & of 2 and 3. Add the bar-two snare pickup on beat 4, the & and the a.
Variations to try next
Play quarter notes on the snare for a stomping chorus. Close the hat for the verse. Move the right hand to the floor tom.
Where to hear this feel
Records in this family include The Kingsmen - Louie Louie, The Sonics - Psycho and The Stooges - I Wanna Be Your Dog. A practice study of mid-60s American garage-band drumming: a trashy, half-open hat, a pounding kick on 1 and 3 with an & of 2 push, a backbeat hit as hard as possible and a crude snare pickup into the loop. The half-open hat is approximated by open-hat strokes at modest volume, and the rough edges of the records are left to the player; it is authored for practice, not transcribed.