How to Play Uptown Funk on Drums (Beginner Step-by-Step Guide)

Rob Bishop | robbishopdrums.com

Quick Answer: Uptown Funk on drums combines a tight funk disco groove, dynamic build sections, and sharp stops with precise re-entries. The biggest challenge for beginners is navigating the tacet opening, counting through an 8 bar guitar riff, and entering cleanly on a two 16th note snare intro. Get that right and the rest of the song follows.

Why Uptown Funk Is the Perfect Song to Finish Your Beginner Journey

If you have worked through Another One Bites the Dust and Mustang Sally, you already have the foundations in place. Counting bars, navigating stops, playing through rests — all of that work has been leading here.

Uptown Funk by Mark Ronson and Bruno Mars brings everything together, although the Rock and Pop Grade 1 are watered down versions, it is a funk and disco groove at its best, immediately recognisable, and genuinely enjoyable to play. But underneath that feel-good surface is a song that demands real discipline from the drummer.

Counting, dynamics, precision stops, clean re-entries, and a series of 16th note snare fills that keep you on your toes right to the end. This is what a well-rounded beginner song looks like.

Tacet: Your First Professional Music Marking

Before a single note is played, Uptown Funk introduces you to something you will encounter throughout your entire drumming career: the tacet.

Tacet is a musical term meaning “it is silent.” Rather than writing out bar after bar of empty rests, a tacet marking tells the musician that their instrument does not play for a defined section. It simplifies the music, keeps the page clean, and at a glance shows you exactly when your next entrance is.

You will see tacet markings in West End show scores, lead sheets, session work, and professional charts of all kinds. Learning what it means now, in the context of a song you already love, is genuinely useful.

In Uptown Funk, the song opens with an 8 bar guitar riff while the drums are tacet. You are sitting behind the kit, sticks ready, counting those 8 bars in silence while the music plays around you.

This is where the anxiety kicks in for almost every beginner. The pressure of the entrance approaching, the uncertainty about whether the count is right, the temptation to come in early or second-guess yourself.

The answer is always the same: focus and count. Say the bars out loud in practice if you need to. Trust the count.

At the end of those 8 bars comes a sharp two 16th note snare intro. That is your entrance. Hit it cleanly and you are in.

The Groove: Funk and Disco Done Right

Once you are in, the song settles into a funk disco groove that feels immediately natural. All four on the bass drum, keeping it steady and locked in.

This is not a complicated pattern. The bass drum is on every beat, the hi-hat drives the 16th note pulse, and the snare sits on beats 2 and 4. The goal here is not complexity — it is feel. Funk grooves live and die on whether the drummer is locked in and relaxed, not on whether they are playing something difficult.

You will play 16 bars of this groove. Count every one.

#The Build: Dynamics in Action

After the main groove section, the song strips back before building again. This is one of the most important musical moments in the entire piece.

First, four bars of just bass drum. The kit thins right out, the bottom end holds the tune, and the space created is intentional. Let it breathe.

Then four bars of floor tom and snare, building the song back up. This is where dynamics become your primary job. Start quietly. Gradually get louder across those four bars. By the time you hit beat 1 of the next section, the energy should be at its peak.

Dynamics are one of the most underrated skills in beginner drumming. Most beginners play everything at the same volume. Songs do not work that way, and this section of Uptown Funk gives you a real musical reason to develop that awareness early.

If you want to go deeper on this, the article on how to improve your groove on drums covers the role of dynamics in making your playing feel musical.

The Stop and Re-entry

At the peak of the build, the song hits a sharp stop on beat 1.

You have been here before with Mustang Sally The principle is the same: the stop only works if you have been counting.

Nail the stop, then stay composed. The re-entry comes on beat 4 with a single well-placed snare hit. One note, back into the groove. Simple in theory, easy to rush in practice. Stay relaxed, stay in the count, and trust the placement.

The Instrumental: Fills Under Pressure

The final section of the song introduces a new challenge. The disco groove continues, but now it is interrupted by a series of two beat 16th note snare fills that arrive throughout the instrumental.

These fills are not technically complex. You have already covered 16th note subdivisions in Another One Bites the Dust and Mustang Sally. The challenge here is playing them in context, mid-song, while maintaining the groove between each one.

This is what real drumming feels like. Not playing fills in isolation, but dropping them into a moving piece of music at the right moment and coming straight back into the groove cleanly on the other side.

Work through each fill position separately in practice. Know where each one lands before you try to play the full section up to speed. Then piece it together gradually.

What Uptown Funk Is Teaching You

By the time you can play Uptown Funk cleanly from start to finish, you have covered more musical ground than most beginners realise, and.. You could play it at a gig!

Reading professional music markings. Tacet is the first of many symbols and terms you will encounter in real drumming situations. You now know what it means and how to respond to it.

Counting through silence under pressure. Eight bars of rest while music plays around you, ending with a precise entrance. That is a professional skill.

Dynamics and musical awareness. Playing loudly and quietly on purpose, building energy deliberately across a section, serving the song rather than just hitting the drums.

Stops, re-entries, and mid-song fills. All of the precision skills developed through the earlier songs, combined in one piece.

This is not a beginner song in the sense of being easy. It is a beginner song in the sense of being exactly the right challenge at exactly the right time.

Learn Uptown Funk in Full Inside The Beginner Drum Course

In The Beginner Drum Course, every section of Uptown Funk is broken down in detail — the tacet, the groove, the build, the stop, the fills. You will always know exactly where you are in the song and exactly what is coming next.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Is Uptown Funk hard to play on drums?

The groove itself is accessible for beginners, but the song demands real discipline. Counting 8 bars of silence before a precise entrance, navigating dynamic build sections, executing clean stops and re-entries, and playing 16th note fills in context all combine to make this a genuinely challenging piece to play well from start to finish.

What does tacet mean in drum music?

Tacet is a musical term meaning the instrument is silent for a defined section. Rather than writing out bars of empty rests, a tacet marking shows musicians clearly when their next entrance is. It is used widely in professional music including West End shows, session charts, and lead sheets.

What is the drum groove in Uptown Funk?

The main groove is a funk and disco pattern with bass drum on all four beats, hi-hat driving a 16th note pulse, and snare on beats 2 and 4. The focus is on feel and consistency rather than technical complexity.

What drum fills are in Uptown Funk?

The instrumental section features a series of two beat 16th note snare fills that interrupt the groove throughout. They are not technically complex but require clean execution in context, returning to the groove confidently after each one.

How do dynamics feature in Uptown Funk on drums?

The song includes a four bar build section using floor tom and snare where the drummer must gradually increase volume across the bars. This dynamic control is one of the key musical skills the song develops.