Breakdown (music)

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In music, a breakdown is part of a song in which various instruments have solo parts (breaks). This may take the form where all instruments play the verse together, and then several or all instruments individually repeat the verse as solo parts.

A breakdown is a popular musical style particularly in Bluegrass, notable examples being Earl Scruggs' Foggy Mountain Breakdown and Bill Monroe's Bluegrass Breakdown.

History of disco break[edit]




Examples in music[edit]

Heavy metal and punk rock[edit]


The drums are usually simple, with a four quarter-note ride pattern with the snare on the third beat. Most commonly, the drummer plays quarter notes on the crash cymbal or china cymbal. In some breakdowns where a very slow tempo is used, the drummer will play half notes, to give the music a very heavy, slow feel. The guitarist usually follows the rhythm, or "chugs", (chugs being palm muted strokes on the lowest three to four string of the guitar) on the kick drum. In most cases the drummer will use the kick drum to complement the "chugs" of the guitars. The guitars play a set of rhythmically oriented riffs, usually on lightly palm muted strings to achieve a very high attack noise that decays slowly making the overall sound more thick and "heavy". Sometimes, these are contrasted with either dissonant chords, such as minor 2nd intervals, tritones (flatted 5ths), or pinch harmonics.


Many of the bands that play in the genres of deathcore and metalcore make heavy use of breakdowns. Modern breakdowns usually consist of slow paced strumming on the guitar, or fast syncopated triplet-feel patterns, both of which, are typically palm muted and played on the lowest three strings of a guitar and a bass drop. These strings are usually tuned down from somewhere between drop-D tuning all the way down to drop-A tuning. Breakdowns in metalcore and deathcore are synonymous with hardcore dancing.





  1. ^ a b Discoguy. "Tom Moulton Tribute", Disco-Disco.