Drum patterns
Start with a rhythm. Make it yours.
Original two-bar drum exercises for house, techno, two-step, half-time and broken beats. Edit the grid, adjust swing and download MIDI without an account.
- House · 124 BPM · 50% swingHouse offbeat drum patternThe kick marks all four beats. The open hat answers halfway between kicks, while the snare lands on beats 2 and 4. A quiet closed hat at the end of bar 2 leads back into the loop.Edit, play and download MIDI
- House · 126 BPM · 56% swingHouse drum pattern with sixteenth hatsThe kick and snare stay on the main beats. Alternating strong and quiet closed hats fill the spaces. At 56% swing, every second sixteenth is delayed; the downbeats stay fixed.Edit, play and download MIDI
- Techno · 132 BPM · 50% swingTechno drum pattern with a kick pickupFour kicks keep the pulse clear. A quieter pickup before the last kick of bar 2 changes the turnaround. The snare appears on beat 4, leaving the first half of each bar open.Edit, play and download MIDI
- Two-step · 132 BPM · 58% swingTwo-step drum pattern with skipped kicksThe snare keeps beats 2 and 4 recognizable while the kick skips the regular four-on-the-floor pulse. The second bar changes the kick response. Quiet hats make the swing audible between the anchors.Edit, play and download MIDI
- Half-time · 140 BPM · 50% swingHalf-time drum pattern with spaceThe snare falls on beat 3 of each bar, so the backbeat feels slower than the 140 BPM grid. The second bar shifts one kick and adds a quiet hat pickup before the loop returns.Edit, play and download MIDI
- Broken beat · 112 BPM · 54% swingBroken-beat drum pattern with a turnaroundThe main snare anchors beats 2 and 4. Quiet snare notes sit around those accents. Different kick placements in the second bar create a turnaround without adding a separate fill lane.Edit, play and download MIDI
Notes you can work with
Each page includes a two-bar MIDI pattern and a suggested eight-bar arrangement to try in your DAW. The patterns are original exercises, not transcriptions of recordings. You can use and adapt these MIDI files in your own music, including commercial tracks. No attribution is required.
The files contain MIDI notes and timing, not audio samples or a complete song. Browser playback uses simple synthesized percussion. Choose your own drum sounds after import.
New to working with clips? Read how to develop an eight-bar loop or plan a tech-house arrangement.