Sultans of Swing
Dire Straits · 1978
A tasteful shuffle-inflected groove that teaches supporting a guitar-forward arrangement.
- Artist
- Dire Straits
- Year
- 1978
- Genre
- classic rock
- Drummer
- Pick Withers
- Tempo
- 150 bpm
- Time
- 4/4
- Feel
- light shuffle-swing rock
- Difficulty
- intermediate
Drummer's Quick-Start
Practice tempos
Woodshed
90bpm
Building
120bpm
Target
150bpm
The feel
A light shuffle-swing rock in 4/4 around 150 BPM. It moves — stay relaxed in the hands so you don't tense up and rush.
What to watch
- •Lock the shuffle triplet; the #1 mistake is letting it straighten out as you speed up.
How to learn it
Well-known tutorials exist for this one — use the links below, and play along from your own copy.
Generated from this song's groove profile — analysis only, no notation. A human-reviewed AI brief with a full groove breakdown, key moments and song map replaces this as briefs roll out.
Learn it
Find drum tutorials on YouTube ↗iDrum links to where lessons already live — we don't host recordings or publish transcriptions. Play along from your own music.
Discussion
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