Genre

Disco music: BPM, drum pattern and how to make it

Disco is dance music from 1970s New York at about 110–125 BPM, built on a kick drum on every beat, open hi-hats between the kicks, lush strings and a bass line that jumps between octaves. It ruled the dance floor in the second half of the decade and is the parent of house.

A kick on every beat and a bass that jumps octaves. Tempo 118 BPM in the loop below, no swing. Part of the EDM family.

The loop

118bpm

Tempo Swing 50% 4 bars

Kick

Snare

Open hat

Hatssixteenths

Bass root

Bass octave

Chordsstrings

Epluck

Bar 1Am7
Bar 2Fmaj7
Bar 3Cmaj7
Bar 4G7

Four bars over Am7, Fmaj7, Cmaj7, G7. Mute a track or solo it to hear what each part does; tap any box to change it.

Make disco yourself

The course starts with the beat under every genre and builds up from there. Unit 1 is free with a Google sign-in, in your browser.

Pick up where you left off

Carry on with Unit 1; the parts of disco come one chapter at a time.

Start Lesson 1 free Continue learning

How to make disco

Start from an empty grid at 118 BPM and add the patterns in this order. Each step names the pattern, says where it falls in the sixteen steps of a bar, and lights its lanes on the loop above when you point at it or tap Show. The same loop is in the beat maker, if you would rather start from the finished beat and take things away.

Step 1 Four-on-the-floor
The kick on every beat. On the grid: kick on steps 1, 5, 9 and 13 of 16.
Step 2 Backbeat
A snare on 2 and 4. On the grid: snare on steps 5 and 13 of 16.
Step 3 Off-beat open hat
An open hat between every kick. On the grid: open hat on steps 3, 7, 11 and 15 of 16.
Step 4 Octave bass
The bass jumping from root to octave on every eighth. On the grid: bass root on steps 1, 5, 9 and 13 of 16; bass octave on steps 3, 7, 11 and 15 of 16.
Step 5 Call-and-response hook
A two-bar hook that asks and answers.
Step 6 Tempo and feel
Set the tempo to 118 BPM, no swing. The usual range for disco is 110–125 BPM.
Metronome

Also in the loop: quiet sixteenth-note hats around the open ones; strings holding each chord.

Disco drum pattern

The drums on their own: one bar of kick, snare and hats at 118 BPM. This is the part people mean by “the disco beat”.

118bpm

Tempo 1 bar on repeat

Kick

Snare

Open hat

Hatssixteenths

Part	Steps, 1 to 16	Plays on
Kick	x···x···x···x···	steps 1, 5, 9 and 13 of 16
Snare	····x·······x···	steps 5 and 13 of 16
Open hat	··x···x···x···x·	steps 3, 7, 11 and 15 of 16
Hats	xo·oxo·oxo·oxo·o	steps 1, 5, 9 and 13; quiet on 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14 and 16 of 16

x a hit, o a quiet hit, 3 a roll of three inside one step, · nothing. The named patterns: Four-on-the-floor, Backbeat, Off-beat open hat.

How it fits together

Disco invented the groove that house later took over: the kick on every beat, a snare on 2 and 4, an open hat on every “and”. Played by real drummers, with sixteenth-note hats ticking underneath, it never stops moving.

The bass is the hook. It jumps from the root to the octave above on every eighth note, low-high, low-high, so it bounces against the steady kick while strings hold the chords and a short melody answers itself.

The loop in words

Kick: steps 1, 5, 9 and 13 of 16.
Snare and clap: steps 5 and 13 of 16.
Hats: Open hat on steps 3, 7, 11 and 15 of 16; Hats on steps 1, 5, 9 and 13; quiet on 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14 and 16 of 16.
Bass: Bass root on steps 1, 5, 9 and 13 of 16; Bass octave on steps 3, 7, 11 and 15 of 16.
Chords: step 1 of 16, each held for 16 steps.
Lead: E5 on steps 1 and 17 of 32, each held for 2 steps; D5 on steps 4, 11 and 20 of 32, notes held for 1 and 6 steps; C5 on steps 7 and 23 of 32, each held for 2 steps; A4 on step 27 of 32, each held for 6 steps.
Chords: Am7, Fmaj7, Cmaj7, G7, one bar each, in A minor.
Tempo: 118 BPM, no swing.

Ask an AI for it

Text-to-music tools such as Suno, Udio and Stable Audio respond to the words producers use, so naming the patterns gets you closer than the genre name alone. The loop above is what this description means; press play, mute a track, and drop its words from the description to hear what each one changes.

“disco music, 118 BPM, four-on-the-floor kick, off-beat open hats, octave bassline, lush strings, string section, live drums, 16th-note hi-hats, funky, joyful, 1970s”

Say	It means
four-on-the-floor kick, off-beat open hats	a kick on every beat and the “tss” between
octave bassline	the bass jumping low-high on every eighth note
lush strings, string section	a warm orchestral pad holding the chords
live drums, 16th-note hi-hats	a played kit with a busy, steady hat
funky, joyful, 1970s	the mood and the era
110–125 BPM	the tempo