I play The Wanderer (Dion) with a kind of a shuffle beat drum pattern. Tonight I heard the song on the radio and I decided to listen closely to the drum pattern. The bass drum and snare sound like they're on 1 and 3. The bass player is playing quarter notes. So what's giving it that "shuffle" sound?

I'm not real good at making out the "parts" on a recorded song. Can anyone tell me what's going on in the rhythm sectin to get that "swing" feel? Up to now I always thought it was the bass that did that.

Rhythm guitar

... and the piano ... and I think the drums are adding to it as well even though the accents are on 1 and 3 ...

I not sure what tune your talking about. How about a youtube link?

I listened to it some more. I hear a bass drum on 1, a snare drum on 3, a “brush” (or hi-hat?) on 2 and 4, the bass guitar playing every beat (straight quarter notes), and………..the rhythm guitar. Is that correct, and…….everything that’s happening to give it that shuffle sound?

I’ve noticed this on a lot of songs. What I thought was the drum pattern giving it the shuffle sound, turns out it’s everything but.

Satisfaction - Rolling Stones…….same thing here. Simple bass drum and snare on the downbeat, and the bass guitar and tambourines giving it that funky sound.

I’m attempting to create my own drum styles as I’m not crazy about the ones they’ve come up with these days on the new machines.

Anyone have any suggestion on how non-drummers would figure out what to do using an arranger keyboard?

Watch drummers. What you might THINK is a very simple rhythm is often loaded with ghost notes that you can barely hear, compared to the main beats. But they add subtly to the overall feel, and often cue the other musicians into precisely what 'swing' amount is supposed to be there.

Diki........I was hoping you'd chime in on.......what's going on to get that shuffle sound. I understand there's more to it than just straight drum beats, but the purpose of the post was for me to learn basic drumming for programming a drum machine....and.....putting styles together in general.

Just pull up Blues Shuffle, hit the chords and sing! Play rides on the Sax, Guitar, Organ and Piano. Kick in vocal harmony when needed. Viola! You've "made it your own" as they say on American Idol!
DonM