Afrobeats drum pattern
A two-bar Afrobeats groove: a soft kick and rim sharing a 3-3-2 tresillo each half bar, lightly swung 16th shaker, no hard backbeat and a talking-drum tom answer in bar two. Press Play to hear it with a sampled drum kit at 104 BPM, change the tempo or swing, and follow every hit on the grid.
How to count the Afrobeats
Count it as: 1 e & a 2 e & a 3 e & a 4 e & a · two bars (3-3-2 in each half bar). The pattern is a 2-bar phrase in 4/4 (two-bar 16th-note grid · lightly swung).
The Afrobeats pattern, hit by hit
Each character is one step of the grid and each group is one beat. X is an accented hit, x a normal hit, o a quiet or ghost note and - a rest.
| Voice | Bar 1 | Bar 2 |
|---|---|---|
| Kick | x--- ---- x--- ---- | x--- ---- x--- ---x |
| Cross-stick | ---x --x- ---x --x- | ---x --x- ---x --x- |
| Shaker | xoxo xoxo xoxo xoxo | xoxo xoxo xoxo x-x- |
| High tom | ---- ---- ---- ---- | ---- ---- ---- -x-o |
| Low tom | ---- ---- ---- ---- | ---- ---- ---- x--- |
Tempo and feel
Warm, bouncy and unhurried. Nothing slams; the swing in the shaker and the 3-3-2 in the rim make it sway, so keep your hands loose. The default tempo is 104 BPM. It plays with 55% swing by default; move the Swing control toward 50% to hear it straight. Slow it down until every hit is controlled, then raise the tempo a few BPM at a time.
How to practise the Afrobeats
Say 1 2 3, 1 2 3, 1 2 twice a bar and clap it: that is the 3-3-2. Play the kick on the first pulse of each half bar and the rim on the other two. Add the swung shaker, then the bar-two tom answer.
Variations to try next
Add a soft clap on beat 4 for a more pop chorus. Put the kick on all four beats for a club version. Leave out the toms and let the shaker carry the ending.
Where to hear this feel
Records in this family include Wizkid - Essence (feat. Tems), Burna Boy - Ye and Rema - Calm Down. A drum-set study of the modern Nigerian and Ghanaian Afrobeats groove (not Fela Kuti's Afrobeat, which the library has as Afrobeat Pulse), in the tradition of records such as Wizkid's Essence with Tems (produced by P2J and Legendury Beatz), Burna Boy's Ye (produced by Phantom) and Rema's Calm Down (produced by Andre Vibez). It is a composite of the common programmed pattern, not a transcription. Each half bar is a 3-3-2: the kick takes the first pulse and the rim the next two, so kick and rim together make the rolling tresillo. The shaker runs 16ths with a light swing, and bar two answers with a talking-drum-style high and low tom.