Songs · 108 BPMapprox · 4/4 · straight · 68 bars · brand new
Walkin' Blues - Robert Johnson
108 BPM · 2:31 · sits on the pop backbeat.
What you play
B bass · S snare · g ghost · restIntro4 bars · 1 written ×4
Accents only for the first four bars, so the track has room to establish itself before you fill anything in.
Verse 14 bars · 1 written ×4
Bass on 1 and 3, snare on 2 and 4, nothing between them. Stay here until it is boring, because boring means steady.
Chorus 18 bars · 1 written ×8
Every and becomes a ghost. Keep them quiet enough that the bar still reads as four events, not eight.
Verse 28 bars · 1 written ×8
An extra bass on the and of 3. One stroke, and the groove stops sitting and starts pushing. Use it for choruses.
Chorus 24 bars · 1 written ×4
Bass on 1 and 3, snare on 2 and 4, nothing between them. Stay here until it is boring, because boring means steady.
Verse 38 bars · 1 written ×8
Every and becomes a ghost. Keep them quiet enough that the bar still reads as four events, not eight.
Chorus 38 bars · 1 written ×8
An extra bass on the and of 3. One stroke, and the groove stops sitting and starts pushing. Use it for choruses.
Verse 44 bars · 1 written ×4
Bass on 1 and 3, snare on 2 and 4, nothing between them. Stay here until it is boring, because boring means steady.
Chorus 48 bars · 1 written ×8
Every and becomes a ghost. Keep them quiet enough that the bar still reads as four events, not eight.
Bridge8 bars · 1 written ×8
Pull back to the accents here. The last chorus only lands if something came down before it.
Final chorus2 bars · 1 written ×2
Bass on 1 and 3, snare on 2 and 4, nothing between them. Stay here until it is boring, because boring means steady.
Outro2 bars · 1 written ×2
Strip back to the accents and stop on a downbeat rather than fading out.
How to play it
- 1Learn the groove on its own first: The pop backbeat. Everything here sits on it.
- 2Play the Intro and the Outro . They are accents only, and the whole song is easier when those two ends are automatic.
- 3Play the whole arrangement , then bring it up . Quick enough that tension in your arm will end the take early. Watch your shoulders rather than your hands.
- 4Record the whole song in headphones, 68 bars, about 2:31.
Listen forFour clear events a bar, bass snare bass snare, with the ghosts audible only as motion underneath, and 2 and 4 landing square on the beat, with the intro and the outro sparse and the tempo holding across the whole length.
start 76 · pass 108 BPM · take about 151s
Record a take
I start the backing at 76 BPM, count one bar, and stop after about 151s. Phone about a metre away, facing the front plate. Headphones, or the microphone hears the backing as you. You get my notes within a minute of sending it.
Watch out for
- • Ghosts creeping up until the bar reads as eight equal knocks
- • Rushing 2 and 4
- • Getting louder rather than busier when the groove needs to lift
A cajón part for Walkin' Blues by Robert Johnson: 108 BPM, 68 bars, played all the way through. Learn the groove, play along, and record a take.
This is a cajón part for Walkin' Blues by Robert Johnson, written to fit the record rather than copied off it. The tempo, the metre and the length were measured from the recording, so you can start the track and this arrangement together and still be together at the end.
It runs at 108 BPM in 4/4, which is 68 bars across 2:31. Quick enough that tension in your arm will end the take early. Watch your shoulders rather than your hands.
The groove underneath it
It sits on The pop backbeat, so if any of this feels shaky the fastest route is that page rather than this one: the same pattern with nothing else going on, at whatever tempo you can actually hold.
The arrangement thins out for the intro and the outro and fills in through the middle. That shape is the difference between playing a groove and playing a song, and it costs you nothing but restraint at the two ends.
The exercise underneath it
3-1 - The groove
Boom - tick - crack - tick. Half of pop music lives here.
Practise it with RafaRead about this
- Your first cajón grooveOne bar that fits half the songs you already know, step by step.
- Ghost notes: the quiet strokes that make a grooveThe near-silent taps between the loud notes, and why yours are probably too loud.