Try a Little Tenderness
Otis Redding · 1966
Teaches dynamic build and a dramatic shift from ballad to double-time groove.
- Artist
- Otis Redding
- Year
- 1966
- Genre
- soul
- Drummer
- Al Jackson Jr.
- Tempo
- 68 bpm
- Time
- 4/4
- Feel
- ballad building to double-time
- Difficulty
- intermediate
Drummer's Quick-Start
Practice tempos
Woodshed
40bpm
Building
54bpm
Target
68bpm
The feel
A ballad building to double-time in 4/4 around 68 BPM. It's slow — the space between hits is the hard part; keep the pulse dead steady and resist filling gaps.
What to watch
- •Play to a metronome and prize consistency over speed — even time is the whole game.
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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