6/8 Folk Ballad drum pattern
A soft two-bar 6/8 for folk and singer-songwriter songs: hats on all six eighths, a kick on 1, a cross-stick on 4 and a quiet kick on 6 that rolls bar two back to the top. Press Play to hear it with a sampled drum kit at 76 BPM, change the tempo or swing, and follow every hit on the grid.
How to count the 6/8 Folk Ballad
Count it as: 1 2 3 4 5 6 · two bars (big beats on 1 and 4). The pattern is a 2-bar phrase in 6/8 (two-bar 6/8 on a 16th-note grid · felt in two).
The 6/8 Folk Ballad 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- |
| Cross-stick | -- -- -- x- -- -- | -- -- -- x- -- -- |
| Closed hat | x- o- o- x- o- o- | x- o- o- x- o- o- |
Tempo and feel
Rocking and unhurried: two big beats a bar, each split in three. Let the cross-stick breathe late on 4 and keep every hat under the voice. The default tempo is 76 BPM. Slow it down until every hit is controlled, then raise the tempo a few BPM at a time.
How to practise the 6/8 Folk Ballad
Sway on 1 and 4 and count all six eighths out loud. Play the hats, leaning on 1 and 4 and floating 2, 3, 5 and 6. Add the kick on 1 and the cross-stick on 4, then the kick on 6 at the end of bar two.
Variations to try next
Swap the hats for a shaker in the first verse. Open the snare on 4 when the chorus arrives. Leave out the bar-two kick for a stiller verse.
Where to hear this feel
Records in this family include The Animals - House of the Rising Sun, Leonard Cohen - Hallelujah and Folk ballads in 6/8. A practice study of the soft 6/8 accompaniment behind folk songs and singer-songwriter ballads, in the tradition of John Steel's drums on The Animals' House of the Rising Sun and the rolling 6/8 of Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah. It is not a transcription of either record. The cross-stick sits a touch behind beat 4 and the kick answers on eighth 6 in bar two. The BPM counts quarter notes, as in every x/8 groove here, so the dotted-quarter pulse you tap your foot to is two thirds of it; switch the metronome beat unit to dotted to count the big beats.