Funk drum beat at 90 BPM
Press Play for a funk drum beat at 90 BPM. It starts with Cissy Strut Pocket, and you can switch to Funky Drummer, Superstition Pocket, Funky Syncopation and Afrobeat Pulse. One beat lasts 667 ms.
Playing over a funk drum beat at 90 BPM
90 BPM is at the slow end for funk. Slow tempos show every timing slip, so it is the best place to learn a new part: play it until it feels boring, then move up.
What plays at 90 BPM
Cissy Strut Pocket is written at 96 BPM, the closest of this style's grooves to 90 BPM, so it opens first and plays a little slower than written. In 4/4 at this tempo a quarter note lasts 667 ms, an eighth note 333 ms and a sixteenth 167 ms, which is the spacing of the hi-hat you hear. Switch to Funky Drummer, Superstition Pocket, Funky Syncopation and Afrobeat Pulse on the page and the tempo stays at 90 BPM.
How long is a phrase at 90 BPM?
Knowing how long a phrase lasts helps you plan a song, a solo or a recording take. The drums play a fill at the end of every four or eight bars, so these are the lengths you will hear.
| Length | Time |
|---|---|
| One bar of 4/4 | 2.7 seconds |
| Four-bar phrase | 11 seconds |
| Eight-bar section | 21 seconds |
| Three-minute song | about 68 bars |
How a funk drum beat works
Funk lives on the sixteenth notes. The kick lands on off-beats, quiet ghost notes fill the snare line, and the hi-hat keeps a steady sixteenth grid. Everything else in the band plugs into that grid, so the job is to feel all four sixteenths of every beat.
How to play along
Guitarists: keep your strumming hand moving in sixteenths the whole time and only let the strings speak on some of them. Bassists: lock to the kick and leave rests; the space is part of the groove. Start slower than you think and speed up only when the muted strokes are even.