Every drummer who is serious about playing the drums set should develop their knowledge and proficiency in drumming styles. Whether it’s pop rock styles, swing or shuffles, or Latin beats, developing a wide range of styles is essential to becoming a good drummer.
Drumming styles are the different ways both modern and traditional rhythms are adapted to and developed on the drum set. You’ll find styles from different countries that vary within a genre of music and often from player to player variations are evident and appreciated.
The following list is a summary of drumming styles that drum set players need to know to be able to play almost any song, with any group. The items on the list include recommended listening, so explore the examples on your instrument as well as in a professional context.
Pop Rock Drumming Styles
Some of the most recognizable drumming styles fall under the pop rock category. This category is particularly special because it’s derived from applying many styles from the other categories in this list to pop songs.
1. Pop / Rock
The pop rock drumming style is one of the simplest to learn and hardest to master. It’s so easy because it’s all on the counts — 1, 2, 3, 4. Kick, snare, kick, snare. But it’s hard to master because of the feel and placement of the kick, snare, and ride pattern in relation to the beat and other instruments.
This drum beat is often called the “money beat” because it has been on so many popular songs that have made a lot of money. For example, you’ll hear it on a lot of AC/DC songs as well as dance songs from artists like Michael Jackson.
Since this beat is so simple, it’s easy to make variations. Within the pop rock drumming style, you’ll hear slight variations on the kick drum, for example, that change the groove considerably. The examples below can completely change a song with one or two eighth notes added or subtracted.
Related: “Basic Drum Beats – The ‘Money Beat’ and 10 More Variations”
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Buy on2. Disco Beat (Four on the Floor)
The disco beat drumming style is a version of the four on the floor drum beat because of the four kick drums on the down beats. The disco beat also has an upbeat ride pattern, most notably played on the hi hat.
Whether it’s Diana Ross, Chic, or artists like Michael Jackson, you’ll hear the disco beat on some of their songs. The song that always comes to my mind when I think of disco is “Le Freak” by Chic.
Common variations on the example provided here include slurps on the hi-hat upbeats as well as added kick drums leading into the downbeat accents.
3. Train Beat
The train beat is a drumming style that sounds like the chugging of an old steam engine coming down the rails. This beat can be a straight eighth note feel, or you can swing the eighths like a shuffle. Most train beats are somewhere on the straight-to-swing spectrum.
Songs like “On the Road Again” by Willie Nelson have a train beat that’s very similar to the beat notated below. Other songs like “Folsom Prison Blues” by Johnny Cash also have a train beat style yet they utilize a variation on the ride pattern.
You can play a train beat drumming style on the snare, drum rims, a box, cymbals, or anything that sounds good for the song. It’s a beat that is widely used in country music, both modern and traditional, and this beat can easily be modified to meet the needs of a song — voice it around the toms, for example.
4. Motown Groove
Although Motown produced a lot of songs with different drum beats, the one groove that is often associated with the record label is shown below. It’s identifiable by the downbeat snare drum hits on all four quarter notes and the upbeat kick drum rhythm.
This groove can be heard in songs like “Uptight” by Stevie Wonder or “Nowhere to Run” by Martha Reeves and the Vandellas. Some songs use it throughout the form, while others take advantage of the intensity in a chorus section or bridge.
5. Bo Diddley Beat
The Bo Diddley Beat is based on the 3:2 clave rhythm. This rhythm has been around a long time and has been applied to pop music in the Twentieth Century and beyond so many times.
The beat was originally played on a song called “Bo Diddley” by Bo Diddley. Clifton James played the beat on the toms and snare drum with the snares off, but this beat is very much about the rhythm and can be played in so many ways.
The first example below shows the original interpretation of the Bo Diddley beat, while the second example is an adaptation of the rhythm on kick snare and hi-hat.
Example 1
Example 2
6. Military Cadence
This beat focuses on snare drum accents, rolls, and drags to establish a march groove under a pop song melody and harmony. Some drummers keep it simple and stick to the snare drum, while others move the rhythms around the drums and incorporate the cymbals in many ways.
Steve Gadd’s drum beat on “50 Ways to Leave Your Lover” is probably one of the most popular examples of the military cadence beat. As the story goes, Steve was getting ready for a session and playing something similar when Paul Simon heard the beat and wanted to use it.
The example below is not as intricate as Steve Gadd’s beat, but it’s a framework to learn this drumming style.
Swing and Shuffle Drumming Styles
The swing and shuffle are based on a range of rhythmic interpretation. The space between two eighth notes can be played anywhere from just before the become straight to a dotted eighth and a sixteenth note.
In the examples below, you’ll see three examples of straight eights, triplets, and dotted eighth with a sixteenth.Most players develop the swing feel by interpreting the middle ground of this range — the triplets.
This space can be opened or closed to create different styles of swing. The examples below include both ends of the range of interpretation and the triplet interpretation in the middle.
Now that we’ve talked about the range of swing interpretations, the following examples show the stylistic difference between a shuffle and swing.
7. Medium Swing
The medium swing beat is around 140 beats per minute (bpm), plus or minus 30 bpm. But the tempo is only one piece to this drumming style.
Beginner jazz drummers should listen to early musicians like JImmy Cobb on the Miles Davis album Kind of Blue. His ride pattern variations and comping rhythms are a great way to learn how to approach jazz drumming.
The example below draws on the kind of phrasing that drummers like Jimmy Cobb use to keep time. Notice the rhythmic ideas explored with the kick and snare as well as the swing pattern variations.
8. Up Tempo Swing
Faster swing time-keeping is usually about 170 bpm or more. This drumming style is characterized in part by how the space between the eighth notes becomes shorter as the tempo gets faster. The shorter distance almost straightens the swing into a sixteenth note space.
Listen to songs like “Cherokee” by Clifford Brown and Max Roach. Max plays very up tempo and still swings. He still follows the approach to comping patterns that you’ll hear from Jimmy Cobb, but this time it’s going by so much faster.
9. Jazz Waltz
A waltz is in 3/4 time signature. This means that there are three beats per measure, and the quarter note is considered a beat.
Sticking with the Kind of Blue album, listen to “All Blues.” It’s a standard that every jazz musician needs to know, and the waltz phrasing from Jimmy Cobb is easy to learn and fundemental to learning jazz drumming styles.
Also, check out “My Favorite Things” by John Coltrane. Elvin Jones plays drums on this jazz waltz and incorporates some companing and fills that are great to study.
10. Half-Time Shuffle
The half-time shuffle places the snare accent backbeat on beat 3 of each measure. This opposed to the regular backbeat on beats 2 and 4.
The unaccented snare drum hits are the most interesting element of this drumming style. Some people call them ghost notes because they are so quiet. But don’t let their volume claim a low significance because these inner beats will make or break this groove.
You can’t talk about half-time shuffles without mentioning Jeff Porcaro’s beat on “Rosanna.” The drum beat below is very similar to Jeff’s legendary groove, so check out that tune if you’re not familiar with it.
11. Texas Shuffle
This shuffle works the kick snare and ride rather aggressively. You can play the Texas Shuffle chilled out, but the parts are busy.
The snare and ride shuffle while the kick is four on the floor. Accents are on the downbeats on the ride pattern, while the snare drum accents give us a backbeat rim shot.
Listen to any Stevie Ray Vaughn album, and you’ll hear one of the greatest shuffle drummers — Chris Layton.
Related: “Learn to Play 6 Blues Drum Beats – Shuffles and More”
Latin Drumming Styles
Most of the drumming styles that we call “Latin” are from either Cuba or Brazil, with a few exceptions. Although you will find some similarities among the music from these countries, each is unique in certain ways.
The Brazilian drum beats have a two feel with a low drum accent on the second beat. This is evident if you listen to a samba school play samba reggae or a batucada.
Cuban rhythms are centered around the clave, a rhythmic cycle born from the musical developments spurred by the slave trade. The drum parts, licks, and vocals are always performed in relation to the clave rhythm, so it’s non-negotiable when you play these rhythms.
Related: “Latin Drumming Fundamentals for Drum Set”
12. Bossa Nova
The bossa nova is the lightest of brazilian drumming styles. It’s a mixture of jazz harmonic and melodic approaches and samba rhythms. It can be played with just a guitar, vocals, and pandiero (Brazilian tambourine). It can also be adapted to the drum set and performed with a larger ensemble.
In the example below, the ride pattern is a straight, unaccented rhythm. It simulates the jingle timbre of the pandiero and can also be played with a brush on the snare or a light shaker.
The cross stick is playing a clave rhythm. This clave rhythm is similar to the Cuban clave with a slight rhythmic difference. Variation on the bossa nova clave is sparse, although fills and transitions to other drums are often accompanied with a simple variation.
The kick drum is like the samba kick pattern in the next drumming style on this list, but be careful not to make it too heavy. The bossa nova is a lighter adaptation of the Brazilian rhythms. The kick drum is not simulating the surdo like in the samba. It’s the low notes of the pandiero.
13. Samba
Samba is a heavier drumming style. The samba schools in Brazil include dozens of players with instruments ranging from shakers, tamborims, and snare drums to big drums called surdos.
The drum beat below is a common drum set adaptation of the samba rhythm. The kick drum simulates the surdo part while the snare drum cross stick plays accents that snare or tamborim of a samba school would play.
The ride pattern is the shaker part, and it’s the most important rhythm of samba. In fact, you could strip down this groove and just play the shaker part on the hi-hat and beats 2 and 4 on the kick drum.
14. Baião (Brazil)
The Baião beat is based on a bass drum rhythm with a strong downbeat on 1 and a syncopated accent on the upbeat of 2. This rhythm is used in several genres in Brazil and sort of feels like the steps of a conga line in Cuba.
It’s an awesome beat to play on a drum set with the traditional triangle part played by the hi-hat and the low drum taken on by the kick. You can explore variation with the snare drum cross stick part to add to this already funky Latin groove.
15. Cha Cha
The cha cha is one of the first modern Afro-Cuban popular rhythms. It was born out of the danzon and is recognizable by the strong downbeat accents on the cowbell.
When playing it on a drum set, you have a lot of options to adapt the parts. The cowbell can be played on the bell of the ride, on a cowbell, or as a cross stick on the snare drum, to name a few possibilities.
The slap conga rhythm is a critical piece to this drumming style. Make sure it speaks well and grooves hard. It’s like the backbeat of the cha cha drum beat.
Add the kick drum to support the bass tumbao and the hi-hat to simulate the guiro, and you have a solid Afro-Cuban cha cha on the drum set.
16. Mambo
The mambo traditional drumming style is a bit more involved than the cha cha. The mambo bell pattern has a two side and a three side that lines up with the clave rhythm, and it’s more syncopated and busier than the cha cha bell part.
Like the cha cha, the mambo includes some kick drum support for the bass tumbao and the slap conga rhythm, too. It’s important to lock these parts up with the mambo bell pattern, which can be played on the bell of the cymbal or a large cowbell.
17. Bolero
The bolero in Cuban popular music is often the drumming style used for ballads. These rhythms are slower and more somber yet strong.
The conga part is the most important rhythm of the bolero, and it’s played on the toms when adapted to a drum set. You’ll probably recognise the low-high-low pattern.
Another important part is the rhythm often played by maracas or on the shells of the timbales. It’s shown in the example below on the hi-hat. Put this part and the conga part together, and you’ll have complete bolero for a Latin ballad.
18. Afro-Cuban 6/8
Afro-Cuban 6/8 is sometimes called bembé or nanigo because of the origins of the rhythms. The beat includes the African bell pattern as a foundation and drum conversation parts on the toms.
This drumming style is fundamental to Afro-Cuban traditional music and has been adapted to the drum set in many modern popular music settings. Although there are several variations on the drum parts, the rhythms in the example below are a very common example of this drum beat.
Since these drum pats are traditionally performed by several players, adapting the parts to a drum set has its challenges. The goal is to include as many parts as possible, while trying to avoid leaving something out that contributes to the key melodic phrase.
19. Songo Rhythm
The songo rhythm for the drum set was developed by the drummers of Los Van Van. It’s the only drumming style in Afro-Cuban music that was developed on a drum set, and it comes with lots of variations and improvisation.
It’s a linear rhythm, so you’ll notice that not a lot of the drum parts overlap in the example below. You can play variations on the songo that have more overlapping rhythms, but the groove still has a linear sound and the half note pulse.
The parts come from mostly mambo and rumba. For example, the half note pulse on beats 1 and 3 come from the bongo bell pattern, and the inner beats are reminiscent of the quinto parts and licks in a rumba guaguancó.
20. Soca
Soca drum beats developed in the 1970s as part of a new approach to playing calypso. The drumming style includes three main parts — the kick drum down beats, a syncopated snare drum rhythm, and an eighths and sixteenths up beat hi-hat pattern.
The drum beat example below is a typical soca beat, but you’ll hear this beat, or at least parts of the beat, played in other drumming styles like reggaeton.
21. Ballroom Rumba
This drum beat comes out of applying Latin rhythms to big band arrangements. It’s a dance hall style that you would hear a band like Duke Ellington’s perform.
It’s a cross between a medium tempo bolero and a cha cha or danzón. The kick drum pattern is often a samba kick, but you can change that if it’s too heavy for the song.
I usually play this groove with the snares off and use the snare drum like a timbale. Since the style is a mismatch of rhythms from the Cuban dance hall music, approaching this style like a timbale player behind the drum set makes the most sense to me.
Related: “17 Latin Grooves Every Drummer Should Know”
Reggae Drumming Styles
Reggae drumming like the one-drop was brought into the mainstream by drummers like Carlton Barrett. The drum beats support the reggae music style by providing a strong low foundation on the kick drum with an upbeat cymbal pattern.
22. One Drop Reggae
The one-drop reggae drum beat is usually halftime feel. The kick drum accents beat 3, while the hi-hat plays a pattern with upbeat accents.
Songs like “Stir It Up” by Bob Marley are prime examples of the one-drop drum beat. Drummers like Carlton Barrett play the snare drum cross stick with the kick drum to change up the timbre of the back beat.
23. Rockers Reggae
Rockers reggae is more like a typical backbeat with the snare drum on beats 2 and 4. The hi-hat pattern is on the up beats, like the one-drop, and the overall groove has both a drive and laid back feel.
You may hear bands like 311, The Police, or Matisyahu play more of the rockers style reggae. It has a more modern approach to reggae and is indicative of the reggae style being adapted to other popular styles around the world.
24. Steppers Reggae
The steppers reggae drum beat is the four-on-the-floor of reggae It’s most notable by the kick drums on all four downbeats and the syncopated hi-hat and snare drum rhythms dancing on top.
Check out songs like “Exodus” by Bob Marley to hear the steppers groove. Also, The Police have several tunes with the steppers beat and often combine different reggae drum beats in the same song.
Related: “3 Reggae Drum Beats Drummers Should Know”
Funk Drumming Styles
The funk musical style developed in the 1960s by combining the swing of a shuffle, rhythm and blues, and syncopated interpretations of the rock beats. Artists like James Brown or Stevie Wonder brought this rhythmic approach to their songs, changing the feel of rock music.
25. Slow Funk
This drumming style is laid back and lightly shuffles the inner beats while maintaining strong accents on the downbeats. Slow funk often includes more space for feeling each drum hit. Even the drum fills are simple syncopations that mark phrases and transitions.
Play this drum beat with attitude. Act like no one can take it away from you, nor would they want to. The two kicks in the middle of the beat nudge the pulse forward while the open space in the second half of the measure lays it back again.
Try playing the upbeat slurp laid back and the two consecutive kicks with a swing in the sixteenth note.
26. Medium Funk
Medium funk is a bit faster and fills in a little more of the sixteenth notes. Since the tempo is a bit faster, the rhythm doesn’t swing as much because the space between the notes is going by faster.
This drum beat includes syncopated ghost notes on the snare, accents on the snare drum on beats 2 and 4, and syncopated kick drum hits. Try playing rim shots for the snare drum accents. This will create some contrast between the accented and unaccented notes.
27. Go-Go Beat
Go-Go music developed in Washington D.C. as funk music took form in the ’60s and ’70s. The drumming style is most recognizable by the accent pattern often played by the cowbell.
The example below is a linear beat, so the drums and cymbals do not overlap. Listen to the separate parts and how they fit together. This will help you with making it feel right.
Use the hi-hat rhythm to anchor the groove. This rhythm is commonly played on the cowbell, but it can be played on the bell of the ride cymbal or on the hi-hat as notated.
Related: Cowbell Song – 15 Drum Beats That Can’t Live Without It
28. Fatback Groove
The fatback groove is one of the drum beats that James Brown used in a lot of his songs. It’s one of the more complicated funk grooves and requires players to have well defined accented and unaccented strokes on the snare drum.
Final Thoughts
These drumming styles are among the most common every drummer needs to know. Although each style has different rhythms and feels, there are enough similar concepts among them to be able to apply skills from to another.