Rock & pop · country · 4/4 straight

Train beat

120 bpm Loop: all
16ths

Mixer

Strums

1
↓↓↓↓
2
↓↓↓↓

The train beat — country, rockabilly and bluegrass-with-drums. The snare plays continuous sixteenths (brushes or light sticks) with the accent on 2 and 4, imitating the chuff of a steam engine; the kick marks 1 and 3. That accented 2 and 4 inside the stream is the backbeat cell.

How it sits: the guitar plays boom-chick — a single bass note on 1 and 3 (root, then fifth) and a short chord on 2 and 4, all downstrokes — and the bass plays a two-feel on root and fifth. Everything lines up with the snare accents: the chord and the accented sixteenth land together.

Listen for the sixteenths staying even and soft; only the backbeat pokes out. The guitar chords should be shorter than the bass notes.

Practice: guitar alone, bass note then chord, with a metronome on 2 and 4; then add the drums and keep the chord strokes clipped.

Sources

  • standard practice; no transcribed source

Keyboard

Space
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1–6
Mute layer 1–6
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Tempo −5 / +5
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