10 common drum beats: rock, pop, disco, swing, bossa nova, and more

Most grooves in this guide have three layers: a repeating pattern on a cymbal, the snare drum, and the bass drum. Start with the rock beat. The pop, half-time, four-on-the-floor, and disco examples keep its hi-hat eighth notes and change the snare, the bass drum, or the hi-hat pedal. Funk, shuffle, jazz swing, bossa nova, and reggae each come from their own tradition, so learn each one on its own terms. Each example is one common way to play the style, not the only one. Every example has a play button. Hands and Feet let you hear each part alone, and Metronome adds a click on the beat.

The grooves at a glance

Here's what each groove changes. Tap a name to jump to it.

Rock

The rock beat is the first groove most drummers learn. Right hand: eighth notes on the hi-hat. Left hand: the snare on 2 and 4, called the backbeat. Right foot: the bass drum on 1 and 3. Build it one layer at a time, and play each step until it's steady before you add the next.

Listen to beats 1 and 3. If you hear two quick hits where there should be one attack, the hi-hat and bass drum are flamming. Slow down until they land together. New to reading drum parts? Start with how to read drum set music.

Pop: moving the bass drum

Many pop songs use the rock beat with a busier bass drum. In these examples, the hands don't change. The bass drum adds a note or two on an & count, which gives the beat a push. Pick a pattern to hear how much one extra note changes the feel.

Every bass drum note lines up with a hi-hat note, so use the hi-hat as your guide. On the & of 3, the right hand and right foot play together, and the left hand waits for beat 4. Say the bass drum rhythm out loud, then play it.

Half-time

In this half-time groove, the snare moves from 2 and 4 to beat 3 only. The hi-hat keeps the same eighth notes, so the tempo hasn't changed, but the beat feels half as fast. Bands often switch to a half-time feel for a heavier chorus or bridge, and charts mark it "half-time feel." Drummers play it many ways; this is one simple version.

Don't slow down with it. Keep the hi-hat exactly as it was; only the snare and bass drum change.

Four on the floor

Four on the floor puts the bass drum on every beat: four quarter notes, the pulse of dance music. The hands play the rock beat on top.

Keep all four bass drum notes at the same volume. If 2 and 4 get softer because the snare is there too, the pulse sounds uneven.

Disco

This disco groove is four on the floor with an open hi-hat on every &. The o over each & means open: ease up on the hi-hat pedal so the cymbals sizzle. The + over the next note marks where it closes again: press the pedal back down on the beat as the stick plays it.

Open the hi-hat just a little. If the open notes ring into the next beat, close it sooner and more firmly. Practice the right hand and left foot alone first: open on the &, close on the beat.

Funk and ghost notes

Many funk grooves use sixteenth notes and ghost notes. A ghost note is a very soft snare note, written in parentheses. In this example, the backbeat on 2 and 4 stays loud, with accents, and the ghost notes fill in quietly around it. Funk drummers play a huge variety of patterns; this is one to start with. Count in sixteenths: "1 e & a, 2 e & a."

Play ghost notes from about an inch above the head, and accents from much higher. That contrast is the groove: if the ghost notes get as loud as the backbeat, it just sounds busy. For more on stick heights, see how to play accents on snare drum.

Shuffle

A shuffle uses swung eighth notes. On the page they look like the rock beat's eighth notes, but they're played long-short instead of evenly. To learn the feel, think of a triplet, "1 trip-let, 2 trip-let," and play only on the number and on "let." The examples here play exactly that: the long note gets two-thirds of the beat and the short note one-third. Players don't keep to that 2:1 split exactly. It changes with the tempo, the style, and the player, so listen to recordings too.

Charts ask for swung eighths with the word "Shuffle" or "Swing," or with a small symbol at the top showing two eighth notes equal to a triplet quarter and eighth. Some shuffles are written in 12/8 instead, with the triplets spelled out.

Jazz swing

In jazz swing, the time is on the ride cymbal. The right hand plays the ride pattern, "ding, ding-a ding": a quarter note on 1 and 3, and swung eighths on 2 and 4. The left foot closes the hi-hat on 2 and 4 with a short "chick." This is the basic pattern; jazz drummers vary the ride rhythm and the accents all the time.

Get the ride and hi-hat steady before you add anything else. Then there are two extras. Many drummers feather the bass drum, playing all four beats so softly they're felt more than heard. And the left hand comps, adding short snare notes that react to the band.

Bossa nova

Bossa nova comes from Brazil and is played with a light touch. Here is one common way to play it on drum set, with three things at once: straight eighth notes on the ride, a two-bar pattern on the cross-stick, and the feet playing "boom, chick-boom, boom, chick-boom." Drummers use other cross-stick patterns too. For a cross-stick, lay the stick flat across the snare with the heel of your hand resting on the head, then lift the back end and click it against the rim. It's written as an x in the snare space.

Learn it from the bottom up: the feet first, then the ride, then the cross-stick. The eighth notes are straight, not swung, even when the rest of the jazz band's set swings.

Reggae one drop

The one drop is one of several reggae grooves. In this example, the bass drum and cross-stick land together on beat 3, and beat 1 has no bass drum at all. The hi-hat keeps eighth notes going over the top.

The half-time example above also puts the backbeat on 3, but it keeps the bass drum on 1. In this one drop, keep the bass drum off beat 1, and count so you don't rush into 3. Some reggae drummers swing the hi-hat, as in the shuffle.

Which groove does the chart want?

Jazz band and pep band charts usually name the style at the top, often with a tempo. Match the marking to a groove you know as a starting point:

When the style isn't clear, listen to a recording of the piece. The bass and piano usually tell you whether the eighth notes swing. If the part writes out a different pattern, play what's written.

Try it

Which groove is it? Check the bass drum first, then the snare, then the cymbal.

Common mistakes

Practice

Pick one groove and set the metronome slow, around ♩ = 60 to 70 to start. Play it for two minutes without stopping, and speed up by 4 or 5 beats per minute only when every hand and foot lines up. For swing and shuffle, set the metronome to half the tempo and hear the clicks as beats 2 and 4.

Rock, pop, half-time, funk, shuffle, swing, bossa nova, and reggae are all in Play-along in Percussion Trainer. Pick a style and play the drum set on screen or from the keyboard. Each note is marked on time, early, late, or missed. When a groove is solid, try On your own, which gives you only a click.

Most of these grooves differ in the bass drum, so reading bass drum rhythms quickly pays off. Practice them in Rhythm Trainer at Intermediate, which includes the dotted-quarter and & patterns from pop and bossa nova. Then try Advanced for syncopation.