The amen break pattern.

10 amen break patterns at 165 BPM. Play one, change any step, take it to your DAW as MIDI.

The amen break is a four-bar drum solo from a 1969 soul B-side that became the rhythm under jungle, drum and bass, breakcore and a lot of hip hop. What travelled was not the sound but the pattern: kicks on the one and the and of one, snares that land where you don't expect them, a ride ticking through. This page has the rhythm, written onto the grid and played with our own sounds, so you can learn it, bend it and take the MIDI without touching the recording.

The two-bar rhythm. The break's rhythm on a sixteenth grid with our sounds: no sample, no audio from the record.

Ride
Snare
Kick

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One-bar version. The first bar on its own, which is the part most tracks loop.

Ride
Snare
Kick

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Jungle chop. The snares shuffled into a different order, the way a chopped break answers itself.

Crash
Ride
Snare
Kick

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At hip hop tempo. The same two bars at 92 with swing: what it was before jungle sped it up.

Ride
Snare
Kick

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Breakcore chop. At 200, the snares doubled and the kicks stuttered: the break cut into confetti.

Crash
Ride
Snare
Kick

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Kicks and ride only. The snares taken out so you hear the kick pattern that holds the break up.

Ride
Kick

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With ghost snares. Rim ghosts filled into the gaps, the way the original's quiet hits sit between the big ones.

Ride
Rim
Snare
Kick

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Double-time ride. The two bars with the ride on every sixteenth, which is how the break sounds at 170 under hats.

Ride
Snare
Kick

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With an 808. An 808 on the kicks of bar one only, so the bass answers the break every other bar.

Ride
Snare
808
Kick

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At half tempo, 85. The same hits at 85 with swing at 56: the break as a slow hip hop beat.

Ride
Snare
Kick

Drop a sound on any row to play it there.

Open in the drum sequencer →

How an amen break beat is built

The kick

The snare

A ride in eighths

Then a variation: Jungle chop

Two bars at 165 BPM. The kick sits on step 1 and step 3 of each bar, with a third on step 11, the and of three. The snares are the lesson: in bar one they fall on 5, 8, 10, 13 and 16, which is two and four plus three off-beat hits that make the break stumble; in bar two the last pair shifts to 12 and 15, and that shift is what the ear remembers. A ride on every eighth keeps the whole thing from falling over. The one-bar version is the first bar alone, which most tracks loop. The jungle chop keeps the kicks and reorders the snares across the two bars, the way producers cut the break into pieces and played them back out of sequence, with a crash on the first downbeat.

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

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Questions.

Is this the actual amen break?

It is the rhythm, not the recording. The hits are placed by hand on a sixteenth grid and played with our own kick, snare and ride, so no audio from the original is used or offered. Close your eyes and you'll recognise it; open them and it's a grid.

What tempo was the amen break?

About 136 BPM on the record. Jungle sped it up to 160 and beyond, which is why the grid opens at 165; slow it to 140 and it is a hip hop break again.

Why does the second bar differ from the first?

Because the drummer played a fill. The snare pair that moves from 13 and 16 to 12 and 15 is the turnaround, and it is the part producers chop and move most.

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.