Rock & pop · pop · 4/4 tresillo

Pop tresillo

100 bpm Loop: all
16ths
Kick
Hi-hat
Clap
Piano
Bass

Mixer

Keyboard

Pop tresillo — the 3-3-2 chord rhythm that runs through a huge share of 2010s pop ("Shape of Ed", dancehall-pop, tropical house). Piano or synth hits the chord on 1, the and of 2, and 4 — the tresillo cell, dotted-quarter, dotted-quarter, quarter — over a four-on-the-floor kick.

How it sits: the kick plays every quarter (four-on-floor), claps mark 2 and 4, hi-hat keeps eighths. The tresillo's third hit on beat 4 is where the chord changes (Am → F, C → G), half a bar each, so the progression moves on the syncopation rather than on the downbeat. The bass follows the tresillo exactly.

Listen for the push: the second hit (and-of-2) pulls ahead of beat 3, and the kick keeps walking straight through it — that tension is the groove.

Practice: tap the kick on your foot, play only the three chord hits; then try the same three hits over the Bo Diddley beat and hear them become the first half of a clave.

Sources

  • standard practice; no transcribed source

Keyboard

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