Blues Shuffle Drum Beat Lesson
Learn the Blues Shuffle Drum Beat
Here we are looking at a blues shuffle drum beat. Now I’ve called it a blues shuffle because it is so prevalent in that style, but really every drummer in every style should know this drum beat because it appears in all styles.
But it is the foundation of much of blues so it is most often seen in that style. Blues and jazz are often stuck together, such as blues and jazz festivals, and the two do have many links. Rhythmically they are both swung. That means they are based on a triplet subdivision. However a big difference is the way we play these swung rhythms and the use or lack of a back beat.
If you want to learn the jazz rhythm you can visit the basic jazz drum beat lesson page.
So here in the blues shuffle drum beat we are playing the triplet feel on the hi-hat. In a blues shuffle drum beat you play the first and third note in the triplet but rest on the second note. So you play one, miss one, play one. As that phrase loops around it creates the distinctive shuffle groove which differs from a straight eighth note pattern.
All we have to do then is add a bass drum on beats one and three, and a snare back beat on beats two and four and we give it the rock beat feel that we’re used to hearing, only with a swung hi-hat pattern.
And voila we have the blues shuffle drum beat. Don’t worry if that doesn’t make sense. Watch the free drum lesson below then scroll down, hit the button and grab the sheet music. You’ll have it going in no time.
If you want to take shuffles to the next lesson and build a vocabulary then you might like to check out the Blues Shuffle 101 Course.
You could also grab this blues shuffle backing track so you have something to use to make your blues shuffle beats more musical and fun.
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