Mento Hand-Drum Lilt drum pattern
A two-bar mento study on kit: the rumba box bass in a 3-3-2 figure on the kick, a hand-drum pattern on the toms and maracas on a shaker layer. Press Play to hear it with a sampled drum kit at 116 BPM, change the tempo or swing, and follow every hit on the grid.
How to count the Mento Hand-Drum Lilt
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 16th-note mento with rumba box and maracas).
The Mento Hand-Drum Lilt 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--- |
| Shaker | o-o- o-o- o-o- o-o- | o-o- o-o- o-o- o-o- |
| High tom | --x- ---- --x- ---- | --x- ---- --x- ---o |
| Low tom | ---- x--- ---- x--- | ---- x--x ---- x--- |
Tempo and feel
Easy and rural. The 3-3-2 bass pulls the bar forward, and its third note gives beat 4 a little extra weight. The default tempo is 116 BPM. Slow it down until every hit is controlled, then raise the tempo a few BPM at a time.
How to practise the Mento Hand-Drum Lilt
Play the 3-3-2 bass on the kick alone: 1, the and of 2, and 4. Add the open low-tom tones on 2 and 4 and the muted high-tom strokes on the ands of 1 and 3. Add the shaker layer and the bar-two hand-drum pickups.
Variations to try next
Play the shaker part on the hi-hat instead. Leave the toms out and hear the bass and maracas alone. Move the Swing control up for a looser, older-sounding lilt.
Where to hear this feel
Records in this family include Jamaican mento recordings of the 1950s and The Jolly Boys - mento revival recordings. A practice study of Jamaican mento, the acoustic country music that came before ska. Mento used no drum set, so every part here stands in for hand percussion: the rumba box bass in its 3-3-2 figure is played by the kick, a hand drum is split between a muted high tone and an open low tone on the toms, and the maracas are a shaker layer that no kit limb plays. The 3-3-2 bass is the defining figure; the hand-drum strokes are one plausible shape, not a documented part, and the banjo and guitar strums are left to the band. It is authored for practice, not transcribed.