Purdie Shuffle drum pattern
Bernard Purdie's half-time shuffle vocabulary with the ghost-note gaps, kick pickups and closed-hat hand pattern intact. Press Play to hear it with a sampled drum kit at 126 BPM, change the tempo or swing, and follow every hit on the grid.
How to count the Purdie Shuffle
Count it as: 1 trip let 2 trip let 3 trip let 4 trip let. The pattern is one bar of 4/4 (half-time triplet shuffle).
The Purdie Shuffle 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 | Pattern |
|---|---|
| Kick | X-x --x --- --x |
| Snare | --- --- X-- --- |
| Ghost snare | -o- -o- --- -o- |
| Closed hat | x-x x-o x-o x-x |
Tempo and feel
A locomotive push-and-pull around an immovable beat 3. Ghost notes whisper; the closed hat stays controlled. The default tempo is 126 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 Purdie Shuffle
Hear the hat and ghost-snare conversation first. Keep the beat 3 snare full while ghosts stay below the hats. Add the kick pickups without flattening the triplet.
Variations to try next
Open the skip-note hats as a variation. Move the lead hand to ride. Omit the final kick pickup.
Where to hear this feel
Records in this family include Steely Dan - Home at Last, Steely Dan - Babylon Sisters and Bernard Purdie - shuffle demonstrations. Reference-informed practice cell at the quarter-note pulse of Home at Last: half-time backbeat, three placed ghost notes, four-part kick phrase, and the closed-hat hand pattern.