Afrobeats drum patterns.

7 afrobeats patterns at 105 BPM. Play one, change any step, take it to your DAW as MIDI.

Afrobeats drums are built from the bottom up: a kick that skips, a shaker that never stops, a conga pattern in the middle and a snare or rim on two and four that stays out of the way. The result bounces at 100 to 110 BPM without ever feeling fast. Amapiano, from South Africa, takes the same shaker and conga and puts a log drum under them instead of a kick; afro house puts four kicks on the floor. This page has all three.

Basic. Kick on one, the and of two, the and of three and the and of four; snare on two and four; shaker sixteenths.

Shaker
Tom
Snare
Kick

Drop a sound on any row to play it there.

Open in the drum sequencer →

Conga and rim. The mid tom playing the dembow shape and rim ghosts on the a of two and four.

Hat
Tom
Rim
Snare
Kick

Drop a sound on any row to play it there.

Open in the drum sequencer →

Amapiano. At 112, the kick sparse, the 808 as the log drum in a 3-3-2, shaker sixteenths, a soft rim on two and four.

Hat
Shaker
Rim
808
Kick

Drop a sound on any row to play it there.

Open in the drum sequencer →

Afro house. Four on the floor at 122 with the conga pattern and shaker on top.

Open hat
Shaker
Tom
Clap
Kick

Drop a sound on any row to play it there.

Open in the drum sequencer →

Afrobeat, two bars. The older style: kick on one and the and of three, snare ghosts in sixteenths, hats in sixteenths.

Hat
Rim
Snare
Kick

Drop a sound on any row to play it there.

Open in the drum sequencer →

Half-time afropop. Snare on three only, the kicks kept, the shaker carrying the tempo.

Shaker
Tom
Snare
Kick

Drop a sound on any row to play it there.

Open in the drum sequencer →

Afro-swing. The basic pattern with hats in eighths and the shaker on every sixteenth, swung to 60: the UK take.

Hat
Shaker
Snare
Kick

Drop a sound on any row to play it there.

Open in the drum sequencer →

How an afrobeats beat is built

The kick

The snare on two and four

A shaker in sixteenths

Then the mid tom

Kick on steps 1, 7, 11 and 15: one, then the and of two, three and four, so the kick skips forward through the bar. Snare on 5 and 13. Shaker on every sixteenth. The mid tom plays the conga part on the dembow positions, steps 4, 7, 12 and 15. That is the basic groove at 105. The conga-and-rim version drops a kick and adds rim ghosts on steps 8 and 16. Amapiano at 112 puts the kick on one and three only and gives the 808 row the log drum in a 3-3-2, with the rim soft on two and four. Afro house is four on the floor at 122 with the same conga and shaker. The older afrobeat is two bars at 100 with sixteenth hats and snare ghosts. Half-time afropop moves the snare to step 9 only; afro-swing keeps the pattern, moves the hats to eighths over the sixteenth shaker, and sets the swing to 60, which the shaker carries.

More drum patterns

The beat you want is in a song you’re playing.

DOT records anything your Mac plays, with its BPM, so you can loop the part and program it here.

DOT Audio Recorder

Free to try · $49 once · macOS 14.4 or later

Download DOT for Mac

Questions.

What tempo is afrobeats?

98 to 112 BPM, with the grid at 105. Amapiano sits at 110 to 115, afro house at 120 to 125, and the older afrobeat of the seventies at 95 to 105 with far busier hats.

What is the log drum in amapiano?

A deep, round bass sound that plays a syncopated pattern where a kick would be; the kick itself is sparse or absent. On the grid the 808 row stands in for it. The 3-3-2 shape on steps 1, 4, 7, 9, 12 and 15 is the usual starting point.

Why a shaker on every sixteenth?

Because the kick skips and the snare is light, something has to hold the tempo steady, and in afrobeats that's the shaker. Take it out and the same pattern feels slower and less sure.

More free tools

All free tools →

Drum sequencer

Program a beat on a 16-step grid.

Drum pad

16 pads on your keyboard, your own sounds too.

Metronome

A steady click, and a click track to download.