Ringo-Style Loose Backbeat drum pattern
A two-bar loose rock backbeat: eighth hats that open with the snare on 2 and 4, a kick that follows the bass, a late snare and a short fill falling from high tom to floor tom. Press Play to hear it with a sampled drum kit at 104 BPM, change the tempo or swing, and follow every hit on the grid.
How to count the Ringo-Style Loose Backbeat
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 loose 16th-note backbeat with a falling fill).
The Ringo-Style Loose Backbeat 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 ---- |
| Snare | ---- X--- ---- X--- | ---- X--- ---- X--- |
| Ghost snare | ---- ---- --o- ---- | ---- ---- ---- ---- |
| Closed hat | x-o- --o- x-o- --o- | x-o- --o- x-o- ---- |
| Open hat | ---- x--- ---- x--- | ---- x--- ---- x--- |
| High tom | ---- ---- ---- ---- | ---- ---- ---- -x-- |
| Low tom | ---- ---- ---- ---- | ---- ---- ---- --xx |
Tempo and feel
Relaxed and a little sloshy. The hat breathes open on the backbeat, the snare sits back, and the fill tumbles rather than marches. The default tempo is 104 BPM. It plays with 53% 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 Ringo-Style Loose Backbeat
Play eighth hats, opening them on 2 and 4 and closing on the next &. Add the kick and the late backbeat. Add the bar-two fill, leading with the left hand from the high tom.
Variations to try next
Keep the hat closed for the verse. Play the whole groove on the floor tom and snare, no hat. Let the fill run a full beat earlier.
Where to hear this feel
Records in this family include The Beatles - Rain, The Beatles - Ticket to Ride and The Beatles - Get Back. A practice study of the loose, song-first backbeat associated with Ringo Starr: a hat that opens on the backbeat, a kick that follows the bass, a snare slightly behind the beat and a fill that falls from the small tom to the floor tom. A left-handed player on a right-handed kit phrases fills in ways a grid cannot capture, and the fixed lateness only hints at that looseness; it is authored for practice, not transcribed.