Ray Price Shuffle drum pattern
A two-bar honky-tonk 4/4 shuffle: shuffled hats, kick on 1 and 3 feathered on 2 and 4 with the walking bass, a laid-back backbeat and a skip-note kick turnaround in bar two. Press Play to hear it with a sampled drum kit at 112 BPM, change the tempo or swing, and follow every hit on the grid.
How to count the Ray Price Shuffle
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 triplet shuffle).
The Ray Price 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 | Bar 1 | Bar 2 |
|---|---|---|
| Kick | x-- o-- x-- o-- | x-- o-- x-- x-x |
| Snare | --- X-- --- X-- | --- X-- --- X-- |
| Ghost snare | --- --- --- --- | --- --- --o --- |
| Closed hat | x-o x-o x-o x-o | x-o x-o x-o x-o |
Tempo and feel
Rolling and easy, made for a dancehall. The walking bass is the engine, so the kick stays soft and even and the backbeat just leans back. The default tempo is 112 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 Ray Price Shuffle
Play the hat shuffle alone: every beat and every let. Add the kick on all four beats, 1 and 3 firmer, 2 and 4 barely there. Add the backbeat on 2 and 4, then the bar-two kick on the let of 4.
Variations to try next
Move the shuffle to the snare with brushes for a lighter band. Drop the feathered kicks for a more modern sound. Play the shuffle on the ride in the solos.
Where to hear this feel
Records in this family include Ray Price - Crazy Arms, Ray Price - Heartaches by the Number and Texas dancehall shuffles of the late 1950s and 1960s. A practice study of the honky-tonk 4/4 shuffle that Ray Price's Cherokee Cowboys made the Texas dancehall standard with Crazy Arms in 1956, where the bass walks four to the bar under a shuffling band. It is not a transcription of that or any record. The hats shuffle, the kick marks 1 and 3 with a feathered touch on 2 and 4 to sit with the walking bass, and the snare backbeat sits a hair late; bar two turns around with a skip-note kick into the top.