Worship Tom Build drum pattern
A two-bar worship build: floor-tom eighths, a kick with a pickup into 3, a soft cross-stick on 2 and 4 in bar one that opens into a full snare backbeat in bar two. Press Play to hear it with a sampled drum kit at 72 BPM, change the tempo or swing, and follow every hit on the grid.
How to count the Worship Tom Build
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 16th-note grid · floor-tom eighths, cross-stick to snare).
The Worship Tom Build 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--- |
| Cross-stick | ---- x--- ---- x--- | ---- ---- ---- ---- |
| Low tom | x-x- x-x- x-x- x-x- | X-x- X-x- X-x- X-x- |
Tempo and feel
Swelling and patient, like the band is lifting a room. The toms roll underneath; save the loudness for the moment the snare arrives in bar two. The default tempo is 72 BPM. Slow it down until every hit is controlled, then raise the tempo a few BPM at a time.
How to practise the Worship Tom Build
Play the floor-tom eighths alone, beats louder than the &s. Add the kick on 1, the a of 2 and 3. Play bar one with the cross-stick and bar two with the full snare, and hear the lift.
Variations to try next
Stay in bar one for a whole verse, then switch to bar two for the chorus. Move the right hand to the ride for the final chorus. Add a kick on every beat for the last, biggest chorus.
Where to hear this feel
Records in this family include Hillsong United - Oceans (Where Feet May Fail), Elevation Worship - Graves into Gardens and Bethel Music - Raise a Hallelujah. A practice study of the rolling floor-tom build heard across modern worship, in the tradition of Hillsong United's Oceans (Where Feet May Fail), Elevation Worship's Graves into Gardens and Bethel Music's Raise a Hallelujah. It is a composite, not a transcription of any of them. The right hand rolls eighths on the floor tom, the kick answers with a 16th pickup into beat 3, and the two bars are the two halves of the build: bar one keeps 2 and 4 on a soft cross-stick, bar two opens them into a full snare.