UK Garage 2-Step drum pattern
A two-bar UK garage 2-step groove: the kick on 1 and the and of 3 with beat 3 left empty, a snare on 2 and 4, and heavily shuffled hats on the and and the a. Press Play to hear it with a sampled drum kit at 132 BPM, change the tempo or swing, and follow every hit on the grid.
How to count the UK Garage 2-Step
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 shuffled 16th-note 2-step).
The UK Garage 2-Step 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- ---- |
| Snare | ---- X--- ---- X--- | ---- X--- ---- X--- |
| Closed hat | --xo --xo --xo --xo | --xo --xo --xo ---o |
| Open hat | ---- ---- ---- ---- | ---- ---- ---- --x- |
Tempo and feel
Skippy and swung. The empty beat 3 makes the kick stumble forward; lean into the shuffle on the hats. The default tempo is 132 BPM. It plays with 61% 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 UK Garage 2-Step
Play the kick on 1 and the and of 3 only, leaving beat 3 empty. Add the snare on 2 and 4. Add the hats on the and and the a of each beat, letting the a fall late, and open the last and of bar two.
Variations to try next
Add a kick on the a of 2 for a busier bar. Set the Swing control to 50 percent to hear how much the shuffle carries. Add a cross-stick on the a of 4 as a rimshot pickup.
Where to hear this feel
Records in this family include Late-1990s and early-2000s UK garage 2-step productions. A practice study of late-1990s UK garage 2-step programming: the kick on 1 and the and of 3 with beat 3 left empty, the broken kick that gives the style its name; a snare on 2 and 4; and closed hats on the and and the a of every beat, the a pushed late by a heavy 16th shuffle. The kit approximates the programmed voices: the snare stands in for the layered snare and clap and the sampled acoustic hats for the machine hats, and the skippy rimshots, shakers and sub bass are left out. Every hit sits on the grid before the shuffle. The hat placement, the open hat at the end of bar two and the 61 percent shuffle are informed choices; producers set the swing anywhere from about 58 to 66 percent. It is authored for practice, not transcribed.