Drum beat in the style of “Take Me Home, Country Roads” — John Denver

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John Denver’s 1971 song has a warm, easygoing groove. Start with a soft cross-stick and move to the snare in the chorus.

Tempo
82 BPM
Time signature
4/4
Groove
rock ballad beat
Genre
Country
Difficulty
Easy
Loop
8 bars

Drum pattern

Main groove × 3
Hi-hat
Cross-stick
Kick
Variation × 4
Hi-hat
Snare
Kick
Fill × 1
Hi-hat
Floor tom
Snare
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 hand8
Snare hand2
Kick foot3

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 82 BPM it has a medium tempo: one beat lasts 732 ms and a 4/4 bar takes 2.9 seconds. Use the tempo buttons to slow it down while you learn.

Practice plan

BPM

Learn At 82 BPM, “Take Me Home, Country Roads” is faster than 8% of the 150 songs in our catalogue. See all song tempos →

70 110 BPM Take Me Home, Country Roads · 82
Tempo among our country songs

Step-by-step breakdown of the rock ballad beat →

How it differs from similar beats

Compared with “Back in Black” (AC/DC, basic rock beat), this groove adds kick notes on 3& — and it runs 12 BPM slower. If you can already play that one, this is your next step. Back in Black →

“Wind of Change” (Scorpions) uses exactly the same simplified pattern, 6 BPM slower — a good warm-up before this one. Wind of Change →

Other songs with the same rock ballad beat

Similar drum beats

This is a simplified rhythm pattern in the style of “Take Me Home, Country Roads” by John Denver, written for drum practice. It is not a transcription of the recording and contains no audio, lyrics or artwork. Drums3D is not affiliated with John Denver.