The pattern
70 BPM · 4/4 · 16 step
| Instrument | Beat 1 | Step 2 | Step 3 | Step 4 | Beat 2 | Step 6 | Step 7 | Step 8 | Beat 3 | Step 10 | Step 11 | Step 12 | Beat 4 | Step 14 | Step 15 | Step 16 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kick | hit | rest | rest | rest | rest | rest | rest | rest | rest | rest | rest | rest | rest | rest | rest | rest |
| Rim shot | rest | rest | rest | rest | rest | rest | rest | rest | rest | rest | hit | rest | rest | rest | rest | rest |
| Shaker | rest | rest | hit | rest | rest | rest | hit | rest | rest | rest | hit | rest | rest | rest | hit | rest |
How to play it and where it comes from
Ambient (Brian Eno, Aphex Twin's "Selected Ambient Works") often has no drums: the tempo is "felt" through the arpeggios or textures. When there is a pulse it is subdued: a soft kick on 1, a distant rim, a shaker on the offbeat with long reverb. More than the pattern, decay, reverb and filters matter. Variants: no percussion, only rhythmic granular textures; downtempo versions with a heavily filtered kick on the quarter notes.