Stoner Doom Crawl drum pattern
A slow two-bar doom groove: a swung ride with a crash-like open hat at the top, a lurching kick into beat 3, a very late snare and a two-tom triplet fall in bar two. Press Play to hear it with a sampled drum kit at 64 BPM, change the tempo or swing, and follow every hit on the grid.
How to count the Stoner Doom Crawl
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 slow triplet-swing doom groove).
The Stoner Doom Crawl 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-x --- |
| Snare | --- X-- --- X-- | --- X-- --- X-- |
| Ghost snare | --- --- --o --- | --- --- --- --- |
| Open hat | X-- --- --- --- | --- --- --- --- |
| Ride | --x x-x x-x x-x | x-x x-x x-x x-- |
| High tom | --- --- --- --- | --- --- --- -x- |
| Low tom | --- --- --- --- | --- --- --- --X |
Tempo and feel
Crushing and swinging at once. Each beat is enormous; let the snare arrive late and the ride swing lazily between them. The default tempo is 64 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 Stoner Doom Crawl
Play the swung ride, beat and let, at a crawl. Add the kick pickup into 3 and the very late backbeat. Add the bar-two tom fall on the trip and let of 4.
Variations to try next
Crash on every beat 1. Play straight quarter notes on the ride for a heavier bar. Double the tempo feel with the snare on every beat for a riff change.
Where to hear this feel
Records in this family include Black Sabbath - Electric Funeral, Sleep - Dragonaut and Electric Wizard - Funeralopolis. A practice study of slow, swinging doom and stoner-rock drumming descended from Bill Ward: a heavy triplet swing on the ride, a crash at the top, a kick that lurches into beat 3 and a very late snare. The swing lives on the triplet grid with the let notes on the Swing control; the fuzz, the jazz-trained looseness and the rolling fills of the records are only hinted at, so this is authored for practice, not transcribed.