Pop drum beat at 90 BPM
Press Play for a pop drum beat at 90 BPM. It starts with Motown Pocket, and you can switch to Billie Jean Pocket and Four-on-the-Floor. One beat lasts 667 ms.
Playing over a pop drum beat at 90 BPM
90 BPM is at the slow end for pop. 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
Motown Pocket is written at 112 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 Billie Jean Pocket and Four-on-the-Floor 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 pop drum beat works
Pop drums leave space for the vocal. The pattern repeats with very little variation, so any timing wobble in your own part stands out. That makes a pop groove a good test of whether you can play a simple part in the pocket for three minutes.
How to play along
Keep chords short and rhythmic rather than letting them ring over the whole bar. Match the length of your notes to the hi-hat. Singers can use the kick pattern as the grid for phrasing a verse.