How to Make a Drum Beat: A Beginner's Step-by-Step Guide

Make your first drum beat in five steps: find the pulse, put the kick on 1 and 3, the snare on 2 and 4, add eighth-note hi-hats, then make it yours. Free, in your browser, with playable lessons.

Almost every drum beat you've heard on the radio is built from three drums: the kick (the low thump), the snare (the sharp crack) and the hi-hat(the ticking cymbal that keeps time). Put them in the right places in a bar of four counts and you have a beat. Here's the classic rock and pop beat, step by step.

1. Find the pulse

Count 1, 2, 3, 4out loud at a steady speed and keep looping it. That steady count is the pulse, and each count is one beat. Tap your foot on every number. Everything else lines up against this count, so it's worth getting steady first. Drum School's first lesson, Find the Pulse, lets you play along with it.

2. Put the kick drum on 1 and 3

Play the kick on counts 1 and 3. It anchors the bar: the 1 tells everyone where the bar starts.

3. Put the snare on 2 and 4

Now play the snare on counts 2 and 4, in between the kicks. This is the backbeat, and it's the feel underneath most rock, pop, funk and hip-hop. Kick, snare, kick, snare: you can already hear a song. Try it in Add the Backbeat.

4. Add eighth-note hi-hats

Play the hi-hat twice on every count, saying “and” in between: 1 & 2 & 3 & 4 &. Those are eighth notes. The hi-hat fills the gaps and keeps everything moving in time. Here's the whole beat written out, one column per eighth note:

Practice it with the eighth-note hi-hat lesson.

5. Make it yours

The basic beat is a starting point. Small changes make it sound like a different song:

• Move a kick onto an “and” count, like the & after 2, for a bouncier groove (try the syncopated kick lesson).
• Change the tempo. Start around 80 to 100 BPM, then speed up once it feels easy.
• End every fourth bar with a fill: a quick run on the snare or toms leading back to the 1.
• Swap the hi-hat for a ride cymbal in the chorus to make it feel bigger.

Making the beat in RockBlocks

RockBlocks is a free drum machine that runs in your browser, with no download or account. Each row is a drum and each block is one count: drag a rhythm tile into a block (or tap a tile, then tap a block) and it plays. Press Surprise me for a beat in one tap if you want a starting point. Then add a bass line that follows your kick and snare, read your beat as sheet music, and download it as an MP3 or a MIDI file.

Want to keep going? Drum School has 100 free lessons that add one idea at a time, from the pulse to full song arrangements.