Super Bad
James Brown · 1970
Demonstrates driving sixteenth-note funk with dynamic accents that push a large horn band.
- Artist
- James Brown
- Year
- 1970
- Genre
- funk
- Drummer
- John "Jabo" Starks
- Tempo
- 110 bpm
- Time
- 4/4
- Feel
- sixteenth-note funk
- Difficulty
- advanced
Drummer's Quick-Start
Practice tempos
Woodshed
66bpm
Building
88bpm
Target
110bpm
The feel
A sixteenth-note funk in 4/4 around 110 BPM. A comfortable mid-tempo — lock the backbeat first, then shape the dynamics.
What to watch
- •Keep the 16th-note hand dead even; let the accents — not volume spikes — do the talking.
- •Funk lives in the hi-hat and the ghosted snare — tighten those before the backbeat.
- •Keep the quarter-note kick relentless and even — it's the engine.
- •Advanced: isolate the single hardest bar and loop it slowly before ever playing along.
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
Set your name to start a discussion about this song.