Pop drum patterns.

7 pop patterns at 118 BPM. Play one, change any step, take it to your DAW as MIDI.

Pop drums are the plainest patterns on this site played with the most care. Kick on one, snare and clap together on two and four, hats in eighths, and a chorus that is the same beat with the kick on every beat and the hat opened. The craft is in the sections: a verse that leaves room for the voice, a build that announces the hook, a chorus that lands with a crash. Each pattern here is one of those jobs.

Basic. Kick on one and the and of three, snare and clap on two and four, hats in eighths.

Hat
Clap
Snare
Kick

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Dance pop. Four on the floor, clap on two and four, open hat offbeats: the chorus of most of the charts.

Open hat
Hat
Clap
Kick

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Sparse verse. Kick and a rim on two and four only, hats on the beats: the verse before it opens up.

Hat
Rim
Kick

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Synth pop. Sixteenth hats, kick on one and the a of two, a stab on the and of four.

Hat
Stab
Snare
Kick

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Ballad. Half-time: snare on three, kick on one and the and of three, ride in eighths.

Ride
Snare
Kick

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Hyperpop. Trap bones at 160: snare on three, 808 under the kick, hats bursting into sixteenths.

Hat
Clap
Snare
808
Kick

Drop a sound on any row to play it there.

Open in the drum sequencer →

Two bars into the chorus. Bar two ends in a snare build and a crash lands on the next one.

Crash
Hat
Clap
Snare
Kick

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Open in the drum sequencer →

How a pop beat is built

The kick

The snare and the clap on two and four

Hats in eighths

Then a variation: Dance pop

The basic pop beat: kick on steps 1 and 11, the and of three; snare and clap stacked on 5 and 13; hats on the eighths; no swing. Dance pop is the chorus version: kicks on every beat, clap on two and four, open hat on steps 3, 7, 11 and 15. The sparse verse keeps only the kick and a rim on two and four with hats on the beats. Synth pop goes to sixteenth hats with the kick on step 1 and step 8, the a of two, and a stab on step 15. The ballad is half-time at 68: snare on step 9, ride on the eighths. Hyperpop is trap's frame at 160, snare on three, 808 under the kick, hats bursting into sixteenths. The two-bar pattern runs the basic beat and ends in four snare sixteenths, so the crash on the next downbeat is the chorus.

More drum patterns

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

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Questions.

What tempo is pop?

100 to 128 BPM for most of it; the grid opens at 118. Ballads sit at 60 to 75 in half-time, dance pop at 120 to 128, and hyperpop at 150 to 170 with the snare on three.

Why stack a clap on the snare?

Because a clap widens the backbeat without making it louder, which is what a pop chorus needs on small speakers. In a verse, drop the clap and the same snare feels closer.

How do I make a chorus feel bigger with the same drums?

Put the kick on every beat, open the hat on the offbeats and crash the first downbeat, and keep the verse sparse so the change is heard. The dance pop and sparse verse patterns on this page are the two halves of that.

More free tools

All free tools →

Drum sequencer

Program a beat on a 16-step grid.

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16 pads on your keyboard, your own sounds too.

Metronome

A steady click, and a click track to download.