A drum beat or drum pattern is a rhythm

Rhythm

Rhythm may be generally defined as a "movement marked by the regulated succession of strong and weak elements, or of opposite or different conditions." This general meaning of regular recurrence or pattern in time may be applied to a wide variety of cyclical natural phenomena having a periodicity or...

ic pattern, or repeated rhythm establishing the meter

Meter (music)

Meter or metre is a term that music has inherited from the rhythmic element of poetry where it means the number of lines in a verse, the number of syllables in each line and the arrangement of those syllables as long or short, accented or unaccented...

 and groove through the pulse

Pulse (music)

In music and music theory, the pulse or tactus consists of beats in a series of identical yet distinct periodic short-duration stimuli perceived as points in time occurring at the mensural level...

 and subdivision, played on drum kit

Drum kit

A drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....

s and other percussion instruments. As such a "beat" consists of multiple drum stroke

Drum stroke

In music, a drum stroke is a note performed on percussion instruments known as a drum. There are four basic strokes.The Full Stroke begins with the tip of the drumstick held 8-12" above the striking surface...

s occurring over multiple musical beats

Beat (music)

The beat is the basic unit of time in music, the pulse of the mensural level . In popular use, the beat can refer to a variety of related concepts including: tempo, meter, rhythm and groove...

 while the term "drum beat" may also refer to a single drum stroke which may occupy more or less time than the current pulse. Many drum beats define or are characteristic of specific music genre

Music genre

A music genre is a categorical and typological construct that identifies musical sounds as belonging to a particular category and type of music that can be distinguished from other types of music...

s.

Many basic drum beats establish the pulse through alternating bass

Bass drum

Bass drums are percussion instruments that can vary in size and are used in several musical genres. Three major types of bass drums can be distinguished. The type usually seen or heard in orchestral, ensemble or concert band music is the orchestral, or concert bass drum . It is the largest drum of...

 (on the on-beats) and snare drum

Snare drum

The snare drum or side drum is a melodic percussion instrument with strands of snares made of curled metal wire, metal cable, plastic cable, or gut cords stretched across the drumhead, typically the bottom. Pipe and tabor and some military snare drums often have a second set of snares on the bottom...

s (on the off-beats) strokes while establishing the subdivision on the ride cymbal

Ride cymbal

The ride cymbal is a standard cymbal in most drum kits. It maintains a steady rhythmic pattern, sometimes called a ride pattern, rather than the accent of a crash...

 (thus its name) or hi-hat

Hi-hat

A hi-hat, or hihat, is a type of cymbal and stand used as a typical part of a drum kit by percussionists in R&B, hip-hop, disco, jazz, rock and roll, house, reggae and other forms of contemporary popular music.- Operation :...

:

Note how this establishes a quarter note pulse in (quad)duple time: each measure is formed from (two groups of) two quarter note pulses, each pulse divided into two eighth notes.

Note how this establishes a quarter note pulse in triple time: each measure is formed from three quarter note pulses, each divided into two eighth notes.

Note how this establishes a dotted-quarter note pulse in duple time: each measure is formed from two dotted-quarter note pulses, each pulse divided into three eighth notes.

Also note how compound triple meter is equivalent to simple duple meter with triplets on every beat.

Note how this establishes a dotted-quarter note pulse in triple time: each measure is formed from three dotted-quarter note pulses, each pulse divided into three eighth notes.

A "fill

Fill (music)

In popular music, a fill is a short musical passage, riff, or rhythmic sound which helps to sustain the listener's attention during a break between the phrases of a melody....

" is played in between the regular strokes of a pattern and/or signals the end of a phrase

Phrase (music)

In music and music theory, phrase and phrasing are concepts and practices related to grouping consecutive melodic notes, both in their composition and performance...

:

Note that since a phrase is multiple measures long a fill signaling the end of one would come at the end of the last in a series of repeated measures.

In double

Double-time

In music and dance, double-time is a type of meter and tempo or rhythmic feel. It is also associated with specific time signatures such as 2/2. Contrast with half time....

 and half-time

Half time (music)

In popular music, half time is a type of meter and tempo that alters the rhythmic feel by essentially doubling the tempo resolution or metric division. Thus 4/4 approximates 8/8. It is not to be confused with cut time or odd time. Though notes usually get the same value relative to the tempo, the...

 patterns the pulse and ride are either doubled or halved, respectively, occurring twice or half as often:
A blast beat

Blast beat

A blast beat is a drum beat often associated with extreme metal and grindcore, although its usage predates the genres, and is utilised by many different styles of metal...

 drum pattern features all drums on the eighth note subdivision or variants with one or more drum's pattern displaced by a sixteenth note:
Note how this resembles a combination of double-time (bass-snare pattern) and original time (ride pattern).

Note that despite the difference in notation, there is no difference in interonset interval

Interonset interval

In music the interonset interval or IOI is the time between the beginnings or attack-points of successive events or notes, the interval between onsets, not including the duration of the events. For example, two sixteenth notes separated by dotted eighth rest would have the same interonset interval...

s and this pattern is nearly identical to the first simple duple pattern except for the second onbeat being divided into two eighth notes and of course the second backbeat being delayed an eighth note.

See also

• Break (music)
  Break (music)
  In popular music, a break is an instrumental or percussion section or interlude during a song derived from or related to stop-time – being a "break" from the main parts of the song or piece....
  
  
• Drum cadence
  Drum cadence
  In music, a drum cadence is a work played exclusively by the percussion section of a modern marching band , descended from early military marches, primarily as a purposefully emphasized means of providing a beat to marchers and often using patterned rhythmic drum strokes to produce a drum beat.A...
  
  
• Ghost note
  Ghost note
  Ghost notes are musical notes occurring in a rhythmic figure which are purposely deemphasized, often to the point of near silence. In popular music drumming these notes are played, "very softly between the 'main' notes," most often on the snare drum in a drum kit.A rhythmic figure may be punctuated...
  
  
• Rhythm section
  Rhythm section
  A rhythm section is a collection of musicians who make up a section of instruments which provides the accompaniment section of the music, giving the music its rhythmic texture and pulse, also serving as a rhythmic reference for the rest of the band...
  
  
• Riddim
  Riddim
  Riddim is the Jamaican Patois pronunciation of the English word "rhythm," but in dancehall/reggae parlance it refers to the instrumental accompaniment to a song. Thus, a dancehall song consists of the riddim plus the "voicing" sung by the deejay. The resulting song structure may be taken for...
  
  
• Rosanna shuffle
• Purdie shuffle
• Bo Diddley beat