The pattern
| Instrument | Beat 1 | Step 2 | Step 3 | Beat 2 | Step 5 | Step 6 | Beat 3 | Step 8 | Step 9 | Beat 4 | Step 11 | Step 12 | Beat 5 | Step 14 | Step 15 | Beat 6 | Step 17 | Step 18 | Beat 7 | Step 20 | Step 21 | Beat 8 | Step 23 | Step 24 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kick | hit | rest | rest | rest | rest | rest | hit | rest | rest | rest | rest | rest | hit | rest | rest | rest | rest | rest | hit | rest | rest | rest | rest | rest |
| Snare | rest | rest | rest | hit | rest | rest | rest | rest | rest | hit | rest | rest | rest | rest | rest | hit | rest | rest | rest | rest | rest | hit | rest | rest |
| Rim shot | hit | rest | hit | hit | rest | hit | hit | rest | hit | hit | rest | hit | hit | rest | hit | hit | rest | hit | hit | rest | hit | hit | rest | hit |
| Crash | rest | rest | rest | rest | rest | rest | rest | rest | rest | rest | rest | rest | rest | rest | rest | rest | rest | rest | rest | rest | rest | rest | rest | hit |
How to play it and where it comes from
The two-beat of New Orleans jazz and Dixieland (Baby Dodds with King Oliver and Louis Armstrong, Zutty Singleton, Ray Bauduc). Triplet grid in 12/8: 3 steps = one swung quarter note, BPM referring to the quarter note, so swing = 0. The kick plays 1 and 3 like the tuba or the double bass (the “two-beat”: two pulses per bar), the snare plays a press roll or short hits on 2 and 4, the rim lane represents the woodblock or the rims/shells (Baby Dodds used them a lot) in swung eighths, the crash is the choked cymbal that signals the last bar of the phrase. At fast tempos (200+) the feel becomes almost cut time. Variants: continuous snare press roll in the ensemble sections, cowbell and woodblock in the final choruses, a “shout chorus” with open cymbals; in the trad revival of the 1940s–50s the kick moves to four.