The pattern
| 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 | hit | rest | rest | rest | rest | rest | rest | rest |
| Snare | rest | rest | rest | rest | hit | rest | hit | hit | rest | rest | rest | rest | hit | rest | hit | rest |
| Crash | hit | rest | rest | rest | rest | rest | rest | rest | hit | rest | rest | rest | rest | rest | rest | rest |
| High tom | rest | rest | rest | rest | hit | rest | rest | rest | rest | rest | rest | rest | hit | rest | rest | rest |
How to play it and where it comes from
The military and band march (Johann Strauss Sr., “Radetzky-Marsch”, 1848; Sousa's marches are often in 6/8 or 2/2) and the heroic film march (John Williams, “Raiders March”). Grid: 16 steps = two bars of 2/4 in sixteenths, BPM referring to the quarter note (typical marching pace 110–120). Roles: bass drum (kick) and pair of crash cymbals (crash) on the strong beat of each bar; the military snare plays the offbeats and dotted figures (here the “trrr-ta” on the second half of the bar, steps 5, 7, 8); the high tom represents the offbeat chords of horns/trombones (the “pah” of the “oom-pah”). The same oom-pah pattern in 2/4 is the basis of the klezmer freylekhs and of many Balkan band dances. Dynamics: bass drum and cymbals soft in the verses (trio), loud in the choruses; the snare needs tight rolls (in a DAW: sixty-fourth notes with rising velocity, or a dedicated “roll” patch). Variants: funeral march (slow, 60–70, bass drum on 1 and a snare with the snares off or a muffled drum), march in 6/8 (the “skipping” Sousa pace), heroic film march in 4/4 with timpani on tonic and dominant.