Reggaeton drum pattern

Reggaeton is built on the dembow: a kick on every beat and a snare in a 3-3-2 rhythm on top. This is the pattern at 95 BPM with a hat on the offbeats.

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REGGAETON95 BPM · SWING 0%
Kick 05
Snare 07
Closed HH 03
Perc 01

The faded row is there to program yourself; it is left out of the playback.

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The basic reggaeton beat

Strip the pattern down to kick, snare and closed hat and you have the basic reggaeton beat: the part that makes it reggaeton before anything else is added. Start there, get the kick and bass sitting together, then bring in the rest. Press Basic beat above to hear it and download it as MIDI.

How the pattern is built

Kick 05
A kick on every beat, the steady floor of the dembow.
Snare 07
The dembow snare: steps 4 and 7 in the first half, 12 and 15 in the second. Against the straight kick it creates the push-and-pull the genre is known for.
Closed HH 03
Hat on every offbeat, between the kicks.
Perc 01
A short perc on the last sixteenth of beats 2 and 4, a pickup into the next kick.

Make it your own

  • Swap the snare for a snap or rim for a lighter, more modern sound.
  • Try 90 BPM for a slower perreo groove.
  • Leave the kick out on beat 1 of every fourth bar for a lift.

Tempos for every genre: BPM by genre. Or let the beat generator write variations. All 20 patterns as MIDI in one zip: free drum MIDI patterns.

More drum patterns

Every sound in this pattern is from RAW POWER →179 royalty-free house and tech house drums: 25 kicks, 21 snares, 20 claps, 43 hi-hats, percussion and 16 loops. $29, instant download.

Or start with the free pack: 24 sounds from all three packs, and a 25% code for the full packs a few days later.

Questions

What BPM is reggaeton?

Usually 88 to 100 BPM, often around 90 to 95.

What is the dembow rhythm?

A kick on every beat with a snare in a 3-3-2 pattern on top. It came from Jamaican dancehall via Panama and Puerto Rico and is the core of reggaeton.

Is the dembow the same as a 3-3-2 rhythm?

Its snare is: within each beat pair the snare falls after three and three sixteenths, then two. That grouping is the tresillo, found across Latin and Caribbean music.

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