Medium Swing Brushes drum pattern
A two-bar medium swing on brushes: a sweep through every beat, the ride pattern tapped on the snare with 2 and 4 strongest, a feathered kick on all four beats and the hi-hat foot on 2 and 4. 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 Medium Swing Brushes
Count it as: 1 trip let 2 trip let 3 trip let 4 trip let · two bars. The pattern is a 2-bar phrase in 4/4 (two-bar swung triplet grid · sweep in the left, ride pattern in the right).
The Medium Swing Brushes 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 | o-- o-- o-- o-- | o-- o-- o-- o-x |
| Pedal hat | --- x-- --- x-- | --- x-- --- x-- |
Tempo and feel
Light, swinging and continuous. The sweep is the carpet and the right brush is the ride cymbal; lean on 2 and 4 and keep the skip notes soft and late. The default tempo is 132 BPM. It plays with 67% 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 Medium Swing Brushes
Sweep the left brush one stroke per beat, side to side, for a full minute. Tap the ride pattern with the right brush on its own, 2 and 4 strongest. Put the hands together, then add the feathered kick and the hi-hat foot on 2 and 4.
Variations to try next
Tap straight quarters with the right brush for a two-feel chorus. Move the right hand to the ride cymbal with a stick for the shout chorus. Add a left-brush slap on 4 at the end of every eighth bar.
Where to hear this feel
Records in this family include Miles Davis - Bye Bye Blackbird (Philly Joe Jones) and Oscar Peterson Trio with Ed Thigpen, medium-swing standards. A practice study of medium-tempo swing on brushes, in the tradition of Philly Joe Jones with Miles Davis on Bye Bye Blackbird and Ed Thigpen with the Oscar Peterson Trio, whose book The Sound of Brushes became the method for it. It is a composite, not a transcription. The left brush sweeps a stroke through every beat, the right brush taps the ride pattern (1, 2 and the let of 2, 3, 4 and the let of 4) on the snare, the kick feathers all four beats and the hi-hat foot closes on 2 and 4. Bar two drops a light kick on the let of 4, the way a drummer nudges the band into the next chorus.