Hi-hat patterns.

8 hi-hat patterns at 100 BPM. Play one, change any step, take it to your DAW as MIDI.

Keep the kick and snare still and change only the hats, and a beat moves from rock to disco to trap to reggae without anything else touching the grid. The hats are the subdivision, the part that tells the listener how fast the music is counting, and most of what separates genres on top of the same backbeat is here. Every pattern on this page uses the same kick on one and three and snare on two and four so you hear only the hats change.

Eighths. Closed hat on every eighth over the money beat: the default.

Hat
Snare
Kick

Drop a sound on any row to play it there.

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Sixteenths. Every sixteenth: busier, tighter, the same beat underneath.

Hat
Snare
Kick

Drop a sound on any row to play it there.

Open in the drum sequencer →

Open on the offbeats. Open hat between the beats, closed on them: the disco and house pump.

Open hat
Hat
Snare
Kick

Drop a sound on any row to play it there.

Open in the drum sequencer →

Skipping sixteenths. Sixteenths with the second of each group missing: x-xx, which skips without swing.

Hat
Snare
Kick

Drop a sound on any row to play it there.

Open in the drum sequencer →

Trap rolls. Eighths that burst into sixteenths before the snare and the bar line.

Hat
Snare
Kick

Drop a sound on any row to play it there.

Open in the drum sequencer →

Shuffled eighths. Twelve steps to the bar and the hat on the first and third of each three: the eighths become a shuffle, true triplets rather than swung sixteenths.

Hat
Snare
Kick

Drop a sound on any row to play it there.

Open in the drum sequencer →

3-3-2. Hats only on a 3-3-2 shape, 1, a-of-1, and-of-2, then 3, a-of-3, and-of-4: the Latin and reggaeton top.

Hat
Snare
Kick

Drop a sound on any row to play it there.

Open in the drum sequencer →

Offbeat only. Hats on the offbeats and nothing on the beats: the reggae top, with a one-drop kick.

Hat
Rim
Kick

Drop a sound on any row to play it there.

Open in the drum sequencer →

How a hi-hat pattern is built

The kick

The snare on two and four

Hats in eighths

Then a variation: Sixteenths

Eighths, steps 1, 3, 5 and so on, are the default and sit under most rock and pop. Sixteenths on every step are the same beat heard twice as fast. The open hat on the offbeats, steps 3, 7, 11 and 15, with the closed hat on the beats, is the disco and house lift. The skipping pattern x-xx-xx is sixteenths with the second one missing, a skip without swing. Trap rolls are eighths that break into sixteenths before the snare. The shuffle moves to a twelve-step bar, three steps to a beat, with the hat on the first and third of each three: real triplets, which the swing control can't reach. The 3-3-2 pattern puts hats on steps 1, 4, 7, 9, 12 and 15, the tresillo that reggaeton and most Latin tops ride on. The last pattern has hats only on the offbeats with nothing on the beats, which over a one-drop kick is reggae.

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

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Questions.

Should hi-hats be on eighths or sixteenths?

Eighths when the tempo is above about 120 or the song is sparse; sixteenths when it's slower or needs drive. Below 90 BPM, eighths can feel empty, which is why hip hop and R&B so often go to sixteenths.

What makes an open hat sound right?

Placing it where the next closed hat cuts it off. On the offbeats before a kick, the kick's closed hat chokes it and you get the pump; left ringing over a snare it smears.

How do I make the hats swing?

Use the grid's swing control: it moves every second sixteenth late, so it only works on hats that have sixteenths. At 55 they lean, at 62 they skip, at 66 they drag as far as the control goes. The kick and snare on the beats don't move. For swung eighths, a shuffle, use a twelve-step bar instead, as the shuffled pattern on this page does.

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.