12/8 Ballad drum pattern
A slow two-bar 12/8 ballad: hats on all twelve eighths, a backbeat on big beats 2 and 4, a kick that pushes into beat 3 and a high-to-low tom walk-down at the end of bar two. Press Play to hear it with a sampled drum kit at 81 BPM, change the tempo or swing, and follow every hit on the grid.
How to count the 12/8 Ballad
Count it as: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 · two bars (big beats on 1, 4, 7 and 10). The pattern is a 2-bar phrase in 12/8 (two-bar 12/8 on a 16th-note grid · four big beats).
The 12/8 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- -- -- -- -- -- | 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- o- | x- o- o- x- o- o- x- o- o- x- -- -- |
| High tom | -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- | -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- x- -- |
| Low tom | -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- | -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- x- |
Tempo and feel
Four slow, swaying beats, each split in three. Lean on the backbeat, keep the in-between eighths feather-light and let the tom walk-down fall into beat 1. The default tempo is 81 BPM. Slow it down until every hit is controlled, then raise the tempo a few BPM at a time.
How to practise the 12/8 Ballad
Count the four big beats first, then all twelve eighths. Play the hats with the big beats louder, then add the snare on 4 and 10. Add the kick on 1, 6 and 7, then the bar-two tom walk-down on 11 and 12.
Variations to try next
Play the eighths on the ride for the last chorus. Use a cross-stick on the backbeat in the first verse. Add the bar-two kick on 9 to bar one as well for more push.
Where to hear this feel
Records in this family include R.E.M. - Everybody Hurts, The Penguins - Earth Angel and Chris Stapleton - Tennessee Whiskey. A practice study of the slow 12/8 ballad that runs from 1950s doo-wop to modern country soul, in the tradition of Bill Berry's drums on R.E.M.'s Everybody Hurts, The Penguins' Earth Angel and Chris Stapleton's Tennessee Whiskey. It is not a transcription of any of them. It is written in true 12/8, so the grid shows twelve eighths; the library's Soul Ballad (12/8 Feel) counts the same kind of bar as 4/4 triplets. The kick pushes on the last eighth of beat 2 into beat 3, and bar two walks down the toms into the top. 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.