Superstition Pocket drum pattern
The drum intro of "Superstition": four-on-the-floor kick, a hard 2 and 4, and the 16th hi-hat figure that doubles up after each backbeat and at the end of the bar. Press Play to hear it with a sampled drum kit at 101 BPM, change the tempo or swing, and follow every hit on the grid.
How to count the Superstition Pocket
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 straight 16th-note funk pocket).
The Superstition Pocket 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--- X--- |
| Snare | ---- X--- ---- X--- | ---- X--- ---- X--- |
| Closed hat | x-o- x-oo xoo- x-oo | x-o- x-oo xoo- x-oo |
Tempo and feel
Dry and exact. The kick is a plain quarter-note pulse; the syncopation lives in the hat hand, not the feet. The default tempo is 101 BPM. It plays with 51% 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 Superstition Pocket
Play the hat figure alone: eighths with the extra 16ths on the a of 2, the e of 3 and the a of 4. Add the quarter-note kick without letting it get louder than the backbeat. Keep the doubled hat notes as light as the rest of the hand.
Variations to try next
Open the hat on the and of 4 for the chorus. Keep only the kick and snare. Add quiet ghost notes between the backbeats.
Where to hear this feel
Records in this family include Stevie Wonder - Superstition, Stevie Wonder - Talking Book and late-70s funk drum-set vocabulary. Reference-informed two-bar study of Stevie Wonder's drum intro on "Superstition": quarter-note kick, snare on 2 and 4 and the published 16th hat figure. The clavinet, bass, hand percussion and room production are intentionally omitted; this is the drum part.