Four-on-the-floor
Four-on-the-floor is a drum pattern with the kick drum on every beat of the bar: four kicks, evenly spaced, on steps 1, 5, 9 and 13 of 16. It is the steady pulse under house, disco and techno.
Also called four to the floor, four on the floor kick, 4/4 kick.
Play it
Tap any box to change it.
Try this
Try this · change one box
Add a kick on step 15, just before the loop starts again. That extra hit pushes into the next bar, the way a track leans into a change.
Hear it without the grid
A short recording of the loop above at 124 BPM, made with Swung’s own sounds.
How it works
Count “1, 2, 3, 4” and hit the kick on every number. Because the kick never skips a beat, everything else in the track can play in the gaps between kicks: off-beat hats, off-beat bass, chord stabs.
The pattern is so even that it works as a metronome for dancing. Most of the character in a four-on-the-floor track comes from what plays around the kick, not from the kick itself.
The pattern in words
- Kick: steps 1, 5, 9 and 13 of 16.
| Part | Steps, 1 to 16 | Plays on |
|---|---|---|
| Kick | x···x···x···x··· | steps 1, 5, 9 and 13 of 16 |
x a hit, o a quiet hit, 2 or 3 a quick roll inside one step, – a note held on, · nothing.
Variations
With a clap on 2 and 4
The house standard: kick on every beat, clap on every other.
With off-beat open hats
An open hat in every gap between kicks.
A pickup at the end
One extra kick on step 15 leads back to the top.
Where it’s used
House
120–128 bpmA kick on every beat, everything else in the gaps
Signature: Four-on-the-floor GenreReggaeton
88–100 bpmThe dembow rhythm: boom ch-boom-chick
Signature: DembowAlso common in Disco, Techno and Trance.
Learn this pattern step by step
It’s in Unit 1 of the course, which is free. Sign up with Google and go straight to the lesson; it plays in your browser, like this page.
Pick up where you left off
Carry on with Unit 1.