Drum beat in the style of “One Drop” — Bob Marley & The Wailers
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Song grooves
· Simplified drum grooves in the style of famous songs — not exact transcriptions.
Bob Marley & The Wailers’ 1979 song is named after the beat itself. Carlton Barrett’s one drop leaves beat 1 empty and lands kick and cross-stick together on 3.
- Tempo
- 76 BPM
- Time signature
- 12/8
- Groove
- one drop reggae beat
- Genre
- Reggae
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Loop
- 4 bars
Drum pattern
| Hi-hat | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cross-stick | ||||||||||||
| Kick |
| Hi-hat | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Snare | ||||||||||||
| Cross-stick | ||||||||||||
| Kick |
Each row is one drum, each column one step. Large dots are accents, small dots normal hits, faint dots ghost notes.
Who plays what: notes per bar
| Cymbal hand | 8 |
|---|---|
| Snare hand | 1 |
| Kick foot | 1 |
| All three together | 1 |
Every kick lines up with a cymbal stroke, which makes this one of the easiest coordination patterns to start with.
About this groove
At about 76 BPM it has a slow tempo: one beat lasts 789 ms and a 12/8 bar takes 3.2 seconds. Use the tempo buttons to slow it down while you learn.
Practice plan
How it differs from similar beats
Compared with “Sweet Home Chicago” (The Blues Brothers, shuffle), this groove leaves out the kick on 1, adds snare accents on 3 and drops the snare on 2, 2a, 4 and 4a — and it runs 34 BPM slower. If you can already play that one, this is your next step. Sweet Home Chicago →
“Three Little Birds” (Bob Marley & The Wailers) uses exactly the same simplified pattern, 2 BPM slower — a good warm-up before this one. Three Little Birds →
Other songs with the same one drop reggae beat
Similar drum beats
This is a simplified rhythm pattern in the style of “One Drop” by Bob Marley & The Wailers, written for drum practice. It is not a transcription of the recording and contains no audio, lyrics or artwork. Drums3D is not affiliated with Bob Marley & The Wailers.