Samba drum patterns.

10 samba patterns at 96 BPM. Play one, change any step, take it to your DAW as MIDI.

Samba is a street rhythm before it is a drum-kit one: a low surdo on two and four, a higher surdo answering on one and three, a snare in sixteenths with accents, shakers that never stop, and a bell or rim pattern on top that tells the dancers where the bar is. On a kit, the kick takes the surdo and the hats take the shakers, and the feel stays the same: two big beats a bar and a swarm of small ones.

Batucada. Low tom (surdo) on two and four, mid tom answering on one and three, shaker sixteenths, snare sixteenths with accents.

Shaker
Tom
Tom low
Rim
Snare

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On the drum kit. Kick on two and four like the surdo, hats in sixteenths, rim on the partido alto.

Hat
Rim
Snare
Kick

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Partido alto. The rim pattern that defines the style, over kick and shaker only.

Shaker
Rim
Kick

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Samba reggae. Slower and heavier: kicks on one and three, snare on the and of two and four, toms in the gaps.

Shaker
Tom
Tom low
Snare
Kick

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Baile funk. The tamborzão shape: kick in a 3-3-2, snare on the a of one and the and of two, at 130.

Hat
Snare
808
Kick

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Carnival tempo. At 110 with the snare sixteenths doubled and a crash on one.

Crash
Shaker
Tom
Tom low
Snare

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Two bars, surdo answer. Bar two's low tom moves to the and of four, the turnaround the surdo player makes.

Shaker
Tom
Tom low
Snare

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Surdo only. Low and mid surdo alone, the pulse before the percussion enters.

Tom
Tom low

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Samba on the kit, slow. At 88 with the rim clave and hats in eighths: between samba and bossa.

Hat
Rim
Kick

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Agogô on the rim, two bars. The two-bar bell pattern on the rim over the surdo and shaker.

Shaker
Tom
Tom low
Rim

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How a samba beat is built

The snare and the rim

A shaker in sixteenths

Then the toms

Then a variation: On the drum kit

The low tom plays the surdo on steps 5 and 13, two and four; the mid tom answers on 1 and 9. The shaker runs on every sixteenth. The snare (caixa) plays sixteenths with accents, written here as x-xx-x-xx-xx-x-x so the accents fall off the beat, and the rim plays the son clave. On the kit the kick takes the surdo's two and four, hats run sixteenths and the rim plays partido alto, a two-beat pattern of its own on steps 3, 5, 8, 11, 13 and 16. Samba reggae slows to 88 and gets heavy: kicks on one and three, snare on the and of two and four, toms in the gaps. Baile funk is the Rio cousin at 130: kick in a 3-3-2, snare on the dembow positions, an 808 on one and three. Carnival tempo doubles the snare sixteenths; the two-bar pattern moves the low surdo in bar two to the and of four, the turnaround.

More drum patterns

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Questions.

What tempo is samba?

90 to 110 BPM counted in four (or twice that counted in two), and the grid opens at 96. Carnival batucada runs toward 110; samba reggae sits at 85 to 95; baile funk at 125 to 135.

Why is the big drum on two and four?

Because samba's weight is on the second beat of its two-beat bar. The surdo marks it, the higher surdo answers on one, and everything else fills the space between. Put the low drum on one and the rhythm turns into a march.

What is partido alto?

A two-beat rim or bell pattern, on steps 3, 5, 8, 11, 13 and 16 here, that sits across the surdo pulse. It's the pattern that makes a kit groove sound like samba even without the percussion section.

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.