Four-on-the-Floor Drum Pattern
Four-on-the-floor means a kick on every quarter-note beat: 1, 2, 3 and 4. This 124 BPM house exercise adds a clap backbeat, offbeat open hats and quiet percussion. Hear the full groove, then strip it back to understand what each layer contributes.
Press Play to listen. Use Reset to restore the starting pattern. The chart and MIDI links below also work without the player.
Where every hit goes
On a 16-step bar, place the kick on steps 1, 5, 9 and 13. The clap shares steps 5 and 13 with the kick; the open hat falls between kicks on steps 3, 7, 11 and 15. The chart below shows the full preset, including its quieter layers.
Read the complete pattern
| Drum / count | 1 | e | & | a | 2 | e | & | a | 3 | e | & | a | 4 | e | & | a |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kick | 124 | · | · | · | 122 | · | · | · | 124 | · | · | · | 122 | · | · | · |
| Snare | · | · | · | · | 15 | · | · | · | · | · | · | · | 15 | · | · | · |
| Hat Closed | 53 | · | 58 | · | 53 | · | 61 | · | 53 | · | 58 | · | 53 | · | 64 | · |
| Hat Open | · | · | 74 | · | · | · | 74 | · | · | · | 76 | · | · | · | 79 | · |
| Clap | · | · | · | · | 107 | · | · | · | · | · | · | · | 112 | · | · | · |
| Rim | · | · | · | · | · | · | · | 36 | · | · | · | · | · | · | · | 38 |
| Shaker | · | 25 | · | 28 | · | 25 | · | 30 | · | 25 | · | 28 | · | 25 | · | 30 |
Build the groove in three passes
- Find the floor. In the player, mute every track except Kick (K). Count 1, 2, 3, 4. This pulse stays unchanged throughout the exercise.
- Add the backbeat. Unmute Clap (C). Listen for beats 2 and 4 becoming the answer to the kick. The quiet Snare layer is optional body, not another rhythm.
- Find the lift. Unmute Hat Open (HO). Its offbeats sit between the kicks. Then add Hat Closed, Rim and Shaker one at a time. Stop adding layers when the groove has enough movement.
Press Reset to restore the original pattern and settings. Mute buttons silence a whole track; clicking a numbered grid cell changes that individual hit.
Why the hats matter more than another kick
The regular kick supplies a stable pulse. The open hat supplies contrast halfway between those pulses. If the beat feels heavy but does not move, try the offbeat hat before adding more bass-drum notes.
This preset uses 4% swing. In this sequencer that delays alternating 16th steps by about 2.4 ms at 124 BPM. The open hats have an additional 4 ms offset; they are not the alternating steps affected by that global swing. MIDI preserves both settings.
Bring it into your DAW
Set 124 BPM and import the MIDI into a drum instrument. The file contains one bar of 4/4 on General MIDI channel 10: kick 36, snare 38, closed hat 42, open hat 46 and clap 39, with extra percussion in the full version. Remap notes if your kit differs. Start with the imported timing before quantising.
If it sounds crowded
Remove Rim and Shaker first. Shorten an open hat in your drum instrument if it masks the following kick. Keep the quarter-note kick and 2-and-4 clap intact while deciding what the upper layers add.
Choose the next pattern
More house patterns · Learn the quiet-hit contrast in a lo-fi beat