Note-for-note transcription of the drum part on Rolling in the Deep from Adele’s 21 (2011).
Around 105 BPM, 4/4. The groove leans on a stomping, tom-driven pulse under the verses, big and primal, before the chorus locks into a full backbeat with crashes that give the whole track its weight. Simple on the surface, but the feel is everything here.
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The Rolling in the Deep drum transcription is proof that you don’t need a busy part to make a song hit hard.
The verse groove is built almost entirely around floor tom and kick, a low, stomping pulse that feels closer to a work chant than a typical pop beat.
There’s real weight in the simplicity, and getting that weight to translate means paying as much attention to touch as to the notes themselves.
What makes the part interesting is how much restraint it takes to sit in that verse groove without rushing ahead of the song. It’s slow, deliberate, almost primal, and the temptation to add fills or fill in the space is exactly what you need to resist.
When the chorus finally breaks open, the backbeat lands with full force and the crashes ring out, and that release only works because the verse held back so much. It’s dynamics doing the heavy lifting rather than technical difficulty.
The fills that bridge verse to chorus are short and grounded, mostly built around the toms rather than the snare, keeping that earthy, stomping character intact even as the energy builds.
If the buildup and release structure feels tricky to internalize at first, our drum notation guide will help you see exactly where the dynamics shift on the page.
Getting that stomping tom sound to actually translate off the kit comes down to capturing it right, so if you’re recording this one at home, our guide on how to mic a drum set will help you get that deep, controlled low end instead of something thin and boxy.
This chart lives in our free drum transcriptions library alongside 160+ others.
Difficulty: Beginner — Easy
Tempo: ~105 BPM
Time Signature: 4/4
Key Technique: Tom-driven verse groove, dynamic buildup and release, restrained touch
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