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Drum beats

Learn the parts of a drum kit and how drummers count, then build the basic rock beat, 8-beat and 16-beat grooves, fills, the shuffle and a short tour of other styles. Every unit has a 16-step drum pad: switch steps on and off and press Play to hear the result.

Progress

About this course

Most popular music is in 4/4: four beats to a bar. Drummers split each beat into four equal parts and count them out loud as "1 e & a, 2 e & a, 3 e & a, 4 e & a". That makes 16 steps per bar, and it is exactly how the drum pad in this course is laid out. Step 0 is beat 1, step 4 is beat 2, step 8 is beat 3 and step 12 is beat 4. Every unit has a 16-step drum pad where you switch steps on and off and press Play to hear the result.

The six units are the drum kit and how to count, the basic rock beat, 8-beat and 16-beat grooves, drum fills, the shuffle feel, and a tour of other styles. The pad starts with the hi-hat on the four beats and the kick on beat 1. Switch on the snare at steps 4 and 12, beats 2 and 4, and the bar suddenly sounds like a song. Then change one thing at a time: a kick on the "&" of 3, step 10, makes the bass drum play "1, 3 &". In a 16-beat the extra kicks can also fall on the "e" and "a" steps, such as step 3 or step 7.

The shuffle splits each beat into three and plays only the first and third: long, short, long, short. To feel it, say a three-syllable word on each beat, such as "choc-o-late", and clap only on "choc" and "late". In the tour of other styles, reggae's one drop leaves beat 1 empty and puts the kick and snare together on beat 3, step 8, with a cross-stick snare. The rhythm was popularised by Carlton Barrett.

Before you start

A steady count of four helps you place drum sounds without losing the bar. The course first names the kit and explains counting, then adds patterns one part at a time. Its sixteen-step pad lets you switch individual hits on and off and listen to the resulting beat.

When you finish

You can build a rock beat with kick on 1 and 3, snare on 2 and 4, and eighth-note hi-hats. You can compare eighth and sixteenth-note grooves, add a fill before the next downbeat, make a long-short shuffle, and identify the different kick placements used in disco and reggae’s one drop.

  1. 1The drum kit and how to countOne player, two hands, two feet: a basic kit has a bass drum, a snare, toms, a hi-hat and at least one more cymbal.
  2. 2The basic rock beatKick on 1 and 3, snare on 2 and 4, hi-hat on every eighth note: 12 strokes a bar, and most rock and pop songs start here.
  3. 38-beat and 16-beat groovesFill all sixteen hi-hat steps and the same kick and snare suddenly sound twice as busy. At 120 bpm that is 8 hi-hat strokes a second.
  4. 4Drum fillsA fill usually takes the last beat of a phrase, four sixteenth notes from step 12 to step 15, and lands on a crash at the next beat 1.
  5. 5The shuffle feelSplit each beat into three and play only the first and third: long, short, long, short. That uneven pair is the shuffle.
  6. 6A tour of other stylesDisco puts the kick on all four beats. Reggae’s one drop leaves beat 1 empty and hits kick and snare together on beat 3.

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Sources for this course (6)
  • Wikipedia "Drum kit", parts of the kit, double drumming, trap kits from "contraption", Ludwig & Ludwig 1909 bass drum pedal, hi-hat stands around 1926, Baby Dodds 1918, modern kit in 1920s New Orleans, snare wires and backbeat, fills (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drum_kit)
  • Percussive Arts Society, the 40 PAS International Drum Rudiments, 1984, including the original 26 American rudiments (pas.org/rudiments/)
  • Wikipedia "One drop rhythm", snare and bass drum on beat 3 with beat 1 empty, popularized by Carlton Barrett (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_drop_rhythm)
  • Wikipedia "Four on the floor (music)", bass drum on every beat, popularized in 1970s disco (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_on_the_floor_(music))
  • Drum Beats Online, shuffle as the first and third notes of each triplet (drumbeatsonline.com/blog/how-to-play-a-shuffle-beat-on-drums-a-beginners-guide-to-the-shuffle-feel)
  • Step and tempo values computed: one 16th step = 60 / bpm / 4 seconds.

Checked: 2026-10-17