6/8 and 12/8 drum patterns.

7 6/8 and 12/8 patterns at 80 BPM. Play one, change any step, take it to your DAW as MIDI.

Some songs count in threes. A bar of 6/8 is two big beats, each divided into three eighths, so the pulse rocks rather than marches: slow dances, soul ballads, the blues at midnight, the Afro-Cuban bell. These patterns use a 12-step bar, one step per sixteenth of 6/8, and a 24-step bar for 12/8 or two bars of 6/8, so the triplet feel is in the grid itself, not in the swing control.

6/8 basic. Twelve steps to the bar: kick on 1, snare on 4, hats on every eighth: the slow-dance beat.

Hat
Snare
Kick

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6/8 with sixteenth hats. Hats on every sixteenth and a kick on the a of 2.

Hat
Snare
Kick

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12/8 slow blues. Two bars of 6/8 read as 12/8: snare on the second and fourth dotted beat, ride on the eighths.

Ride
Snare
Kick

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Waltz. Three beats: kick on one, rim on two and three, hats on the eighths (a 12-step bar read as 3/4).

Hat
Rim
Kick

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Power ballad. 6/8 at 70 with a crash on one, the snare on 4 and a kick on the and of 3.

Crash
Ride
Snare
Kick

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Afro 6/8 bell. The 6/8 bell pattern on the ride, kick on 1 and 4, shaker on every step.

Ride
Shaker
Kick

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Two bars with a fill. Bar two ends in toms high to low on the last three steps.

Hat
Tom high
Tom
Tom low
Snare
Kick

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How a 6/8 and 12/8 beat is built

The kick

The snare

Hats in eighths

Then a variation: 6/8 with sixteenth hats

The basic 6/8: kick on step 1, snare on step 7 (the second big beat), hats on every other step, at 80. Sixteenth hats fill all twelve steps and add a kick on step 6. The 12/8 slow blues is a 24-step bar with the snare on steps 7 and 19, the second and fourth dotted beats, and the ride on every eighth, at 60. The waltz reads the 12-step bar as three beats of four: kick on step 1, rim on 5 and 9. The power ballad at 70 puts a crash on one, the snare on 7 and a kick on step 9. The Afro 6/8 bell is the ride on steps 1, 3, 4, 6, 8 and 10, the standard bell, with the kick on 1 and 7 and a shaker on every step. The two-bar pattern ends in toms high to low on the last three steps.

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Questions.

Why is the grid 12 steps on this page?

Because 6/8 has six eighths a bar, twelve sixteenths, and a 16-step grid can't hold that evenly. The beat grid's 12-step mode gives one step per sixteenth; 24 steps is 12/8 or two bars of 6/8.

Is 6/8 the same as a shuffle?

They feel alike and differ in the count. A shuffle is 4/4 with the eighths swung into triplets; 6/8 is two beats of three straight eighths. Both pages use the 12-step bar: the blues page counts it as four beats of three, this page as two beats of three or, in 12/8, four. Slow blues sits on both.

What tempo is a 6/8 ballad?

Counted in two big beats, 50 to 75 BPM; the grid opens at 80 because it counts the dotted-quarter pulse. A 12/8 blues sits at 50 to 65; the Afro bell at 90 to 120.

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