The shuffle feel

Split each beat into three and play only the first and third: long, short, long, short. That uneven pair is the shuffle.

Straight and swung

Everything so far has been straight: each beat split into equal halves or quarters. Clap "1 & 2 & 3 & 4 &" evenly and that is a straight eighth-note feel. Now split each beat into three equal parts instead, a triplet, and count "1 trip-let, 2 trip-let". Clap on "1" and on "let" only, leaving out the middle. The first note lasts two-thirds of the beat and the second one-third, a long-short pair. That is the shuffle, the rolling feel behind a great deal of blues, early rock and roll, boogie-woogie and swing. In jazz the same idea is usually called swing eighths.

Why the pad can only come close

The drum pad divides each beat into four, not three, so it cannot play a true triplet. The closest it gets is a note on the beat and another on the "a", steps 0 and 3. That gives a 3:1 split, three-quarters and one-quarter, while a triplet shuffle is 2:1. The 3:1 version is sharper and more jerky; written music calls it a dotted eighth and a sixteenth. Listen to the pad below and then clap the triplet version with your own hands: the real shuffle sits a little closer to even than what the pad plays. Getting that difference into your body is most of the work.

A basic shuffle beat

The simplest shuffle keeps the rock layout and changes only the hi-hat. Kick on 1 and 3, snare on 2 and 4, and the hi-hat plays the long-short pair on every beat: "1 -let, 2 -let, 3 -let, 4 -let". On the ride cymbal this becomes the steady jazz pattern. Blues drummers often play the long-short pair on the snare too, with the backbeats accented, so the whole kit seems to lean forward. Many people count a slow shuffle in 12/8 instead of 4/4: four beats, each split into three eighth notes, twelve in all.

A good way to feel it is to say a three-syllable word on each beat, such as "choc-o-late", and clap only on "choc" and "late". Keep the word going while you add your foot on 1 and 3. When you can tap the shuffle with one hand and the backbeat with the other while saying the word, you have the coordination for the beat on a kit. Do not worry if it feels stiff at first. The shuffle is learned by ear more than by counting, so listen to recordings of blues and early rock and roll and tap along with the hi-hat or ride before you sit at the pad.

Try it

The first pad plays the 3:1 shuffle on the hi-hat with a rock kick and snare. The second pad is the same beat played straight. Switch between them and listen for the bounce. Then try moving each "a" step one step earlier, to the "&", and hear the shuffle disappear.