House drum patterns.

10 house patterns at 124 BPM. Play one, change any step, take it to your DAW as MIDI.

House is the kick on every beat, and the whole genre is what you put around it. A clap on two and four, an open hat squeezed between the kicks, a shaker running underneath: four elements, and the floor moves. Because the kick never changes, the groove lives in the offbeats, and a house pattern is really a question about where the hats go.

Four on the floor. Kick on every beat, clap on two and four, open hat on the offbeats.

Open hat
Hat
Clap
Kick

Drop a sound on any row to play it there.

Open in the drum sequencer →

Deep house. Shaker sixteenths and a ride instead of the open hat; softer, rounder.

Ride
Shaker
Rim
Clap
Kick

Drop a sound on any row to play it there.

Open in the drum sequencer →

Tech house. Rim shots on the sixteenths before the beat, the clap kept, the hats tight.

Open hat
Hat
Rim
Clap
Kick

Drop a sound on any row to play it there.

Open in the drum sequencer →

Filtered. Clap and snare together, crash on the one, the open hat every offbeat.

Crash
Open hat
Clap
Snare
Kick

Drop a sound on any row to play it there.

Open in the drum sequencer →

Intro, kick and hats only. The first sixteen bars of most tracks: kick, closed hats, nothing else yet.

Hat
Kick

Drop a sound on any row to play it there.

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Breakdown with toms. No kick for the bar; toms and a shaker keep the pulse until it drops back in.

Shaker
Tom high
Tom
Tom low
Clap

Drop a sound on any row to play it there.

Open in the drum sequencer →

Swung house. Swing at 58 and a skipping hat: the US garage end of house.

Open hat
Hat
Shaker
Clap
Kick

Drop a sound on any row to play it there.

Open in the drum sequencer →

Two bars with a fill. Bar two ends with the clap doubled on the last two sixteenths.

Open hat
Hat
Clap
Kick

Drop a sound on any row to play it there.

Open in the drum sequencer →

Sparse, kick and clap. Four kicks and the clap on two and four, nothing on top: the bar before the hats come in.

Clap
Kick

Drop a sound on any row to play it there.

Open in the drum sequencer →

Progressive house. At 126 with sixteenth hats, the clap on two and four and a rim building on the last beat: the long-form kind.

Open hat
Hat
Rim
Clap
Kick

Drop a sound on any row to play it there.

Open in the drum sequencer →

How a house beat is built

Four on the floor

The clap on two and four

Hats in eighths and the open hat

Then a variation: Deep house

Kick on steps 1, 5, 9 and 13. That is the floor, and it never moves. Clap on steps 5 and 13, on top of the second and fourth kick. The open hat goes on the offbeats, steps 3, 7, 11 and 15, exactly halfway between kicks, which is the pump: the kick pushes down, the open hat lifts. Closed hats on every eighth fill the gaps. Keep the swing at zero; house is straight, and a shaker in sixteenths does the job swing does elsewhere. Then take things away: deep house drops the open hat for a ride and lets the shaker carry it, tech house adds rim shots just before the beat, and the filtered French style stacks a snare under the clap and puts a crash on the one.

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.

What tempo is house?

120 to 128 BPM. The grid opens at 124; deep house sits a little lower, tech house a little higher. Above 130 the same pattern reads as techno.

Why does my house beat sound flat?

Usually the open hat is on the beat instead of between the beats. Move it to steps 3, 7, 11 and 15 and the pump appears. If it still sits flat, the kick is too long: shorten it so the open hat has room.

How is house different from techno?

The same kick, with the clap on two and four and warmer, more swung percussion. Techno drops the clap and the warmth and lets the open hat and the kick do everything.

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.