10 Basic Drum Beats for Beginners – Simple & Easy Patterns! (2024)

My favorite thing about drumming is that there are countless beats and patterns you can play. The possibilities are endless, and they’re only limited by how creative you can be behind the kit. With that being said, it can become pretty overwhelming to learn how to play a few basic beats at first.

So, I’ve put together a list of some basic beats for beginners that you’ll be able to play fairly easily in your first few weeks of drumming. Let’s jump right in!

Beat 1

Here lies the holy grail of drumming, the basic rock beat. This groove is the first thing everyone learns to play on the drums, arguably making it one of the easiest drum beats out there. The great thing about it is that you will never stop playing it. I’ve most probably used this beat at least once in every gig I’ve ever played.

It’s the most used beat in the world, meaning it’s vitally important that you learn and develop it in the fundamental years of your drumming.

When learning to play the groove, just remember that your snare drum lands on beats 2 and 4 while the kick drum lands on 1 and 2. Your right hand will be playing 8^th notes on the hi-hat all the way through.

Beat 2

The next groove to learn is a slight variation of the basic rock beat. You only add two more notes, but it completely changes the vibe of the groove. Playing all the quarter notes on the bass drum is typically referred to as playing “four-on-the-floor”.

Four-on-the-floor grooves are quite common in pop and dance music. I’ve also found this to be one of the main beats I play when drumming in church.

When playing the groove, make sure that you kick the bass drum fairly hard to give the groove a strong driving feel.

Beat 3

I recently saw a video on YouTube where a drummer pointed out how often this groove is used in pop music. Producers seem to love it and add it into as many songs as they can. Luckily, it’s a fairly simple to learn drum beat for beginners.

The bass drum falls on the offbeat before the second snare drum. Playing that may take a while to get used to, but you’ll feel ready to expand even further once you’re used to it. So, I’d say this is a great groove to lay a foundation of offbeat ideas with.

And since it’s so popular, you’ll probably be able to use this beat with some of your favorite radio tunes.

Beat 4

Beat 4 will test your leg endurance. There are a few repeating kicks here that will give the groove a very dense low-end sound. If you play the groove slowly, it’ll act as a foot exercise to work on foot speed.

Once you speed the groove up, it becomes a driving beat that could be used in a rock or punk song. My students always find this groove harder to speed up than the previous ones, so be prepared to practice it more often.

Beat 5

Something that I’ve found that is very common with beginner drummers is experiencing difficulty in opening and closing the hi-hat. It’s completely understandable. There are so many components involved with playing the drums that using your fourth limb can shut your whole body down.

I’ve put this groove here as a small exercise to get comfortable with opening the hi-hat within a groove. It’s the same as Beat 1. However, you need to lift your left foot off the hi-hat pedal just before the second snare hit.

Beat 6

Make sure you’ve nailed the first 5 basic drum beats before moving on as the next few will be a bit trickier to learn. Introduced in this groove are things called ghost notes. They’re shown by the bracket around the note and you play them by lightly tapping the snare drum. Ghost notes usually make beats sound a lot groovier, making them a fantastic tool.

I’ve found that the best way to get good-sounding ghost notes is to simply drop your wrist near the snare to play the note. If you lift your wrist up to play, you might get a snare sound that is too loud.

Beat 7

I think this particular groove is one of the most common ones where drummers start to get a bit busier on the snare drum. I first heard something similar to this in Nirvana’s ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’.

Make sure to play the ghost notes as quietly as possible while accenting the snares on beats 2 and 4. If you play those two snares louder, it’ll be easier to play the other notes softer.

This groove sounds the best when played at a high tempo, so try speeding it up when you’re feeling comfortable with it.

Beat 8

You’re going to be shifting your focus onto the bass drum for this next drum beat. What you have here is a double kick pattern. I’ve put this beat here because it will help beginners separate their hands and feet in a groove.

All my students double up their hands and feet at first when trying a groove like this. If that happens to you, play the groove slow and make sure to count out loud when reading the rhythms.

If you’re struggling to play fast kick patterns in succession, try using either the slide or heel-toe bass drum technique to make it a bit easier.

Beat 9

Beat 9 has a similar focus to the last groove. However, this groove will be a bit easier to play. It will also be more usable in songs. I’ve heard several songs that have a groove similar to this, so it’s a good beat to add to your arsenal.

Again, make sure you work on completely separating your foot from your hands when you play the 16^th note on the kick drum before beat 4.

Beat 10

The last beat on the list is a straightforward 16^th note groove. I’ve found that beginner drummers will typically learn a beat like this and alternate their hands on the hi-hat and snare drum. However, I’ve written this groove out so that you need to keep your right hand at the hi-hat and your left hand at the snare.

Playing it like this will help you build hand dexterity. You may feel like your hand is a bit stiff at first. The best way to counter that is to play the downbeats on the shoulder of the hi-hat and play the onbeats on the surface. You’ll also get a natural dynamic shift from playing like this which is great.

Mastering Beats

Here’s a video of me playing some of these easy drum beats.

Practicing beats like these will yield better results if you give yourself a bit of direction. I like to run through a checklist with my students that looks something like this.

Metronome Work

The first step is to play the groove along with a metronome. The metronome will keep you in time and ensure that you’re establishing a solid foundation with the drum beat. It will also allow you to speed up the groove in small steps.

If you play a groove for a few minutes and then slightly increase the tempo every now and then, you’ll get great results.

Playing in Songs

Once you can play the groove comfortably, you should try applying it in a musical context. To me, this is the most important step in learning anything on the drums. So, find a song that you like and see if the groove you learned will fit. If it does, keep on playing!

The grooves that I’ve written out above are highly usable ones that work in a multitude of songs. Playing them along with music with be both fun and highly beneficial for your drumming skills.

Developing Fluidity

The last step in working on grooves is to see how fluidly you can switch between them. This is the ultimate sign of musicality. To practice this, I’d suggest you play all the grooves we’ve gone through in a sequence. Play each one 4 times in a row and then jump straight onto the next one.

Bonus points if you can do that while playing along to a song.

Wrap Up

I’ve stuck mostly to these methods with all the beginner drummers that I teach, and they work extraordinarily well. The 10 grooves we’ve gone through will keep you busy for quite a while. Once you’ve worked on all 10 of them, you’ll be ready to take on hundreds of songs.

Just remember to keep working on them for as long as you can. I’ve been playing drums for over 20 years, and I still find myself working on ways to make my basic rock beat sound better than it has before.

The great thing about drums is that you can never stop improving, even on the simple things. So, these grooves will be incredibly important in your drumming journey.