20 Rock Drum Beats and Patterns (With Sheet Music)

Rock is one of the best styles to play on the drums. All rock beats feel so natural when you’re jamming them out, and you don’t need to worry too much about dynamics at first, making them easy to learn. 

For this guide, I’ve broken down 20 of my favorite rock drum beats to play. You’ll hear most of these being used in countless rock songs. 

Rock Drum Beat 1

To start off our list of grooves, we’re going to play quarter notes on the hi-hat. You’re going to leave the hi-hats slightly open so that they produce a washy sound. This will make the groove sound a bit more aggressive, which is what you want with rock drumming. 

You’ll then play your bass drum on beats 1 and 3 and your snare drum on beats 2 and 4. It’s a fairly easy groove to play, but you’ll need to focus on striking the drums with intent to make it sound powerful. 

Rock Drum Beat 2

Our next groove is a continuation of the last one. You’ll play the same thing, but you’re going to add a second kick drum on the “and” of beat 1 and beat 3. 

When I first learned to play grooves like this, my right hand would always be tempted to play the hi-hat twice along with the bass drum. So, focus on the separation of those limbs while grooving. 

This groove also sounds fantastic when you speed it up. It’s your classic rock/punk driving drum beat.

Rock Drum Beat 3

Again, we’re going to build on the last groove. You’re going to keep those double bass drum patterns going, but you’re also going to add a second snare drum on the “and” count of beat 2 and beat 4. 

It may be a bit hard here to keep the snare drum notes at the same volume consistency, but you need to do that to keep the groove sounding powerful. 

Once you speed this up, it sounds more like a classic rock groove than anything. Think of bands like The Beatles and The Beach Boys. 

Rock Drum Beat 4

For this groove, we’re going to flip things around. You’ll play quarter notes on your hi-hat with a slight life between the top and bottom. 

You’ll then play a strong snare drum stroke every time you play those open hi-hats. In between those, you’ll play bass drum notes on all of the “and” counts in the bar. 

This is actually one of my favorite drum grooves to play. It sounds so good, especially when you speed it up. It also pushes more into the metal side of things when you play it at really high speeds. 

Rock Drum Beat 5

This will be our last groove to learn with a quarter note hi-hat pattern. It includes syncopated rhythms between your snare drum and kick drum, creating an interesting sound. 

You’ll start by playing a snare drum on beat 1. You’ll follow that with a bass drum on the “and” of beat 1. 

Beat 2 will have the snare drum on the “and” count. The same will happen on beat 3, but you’ll play a bass drum instead of a snare drum. Finally, beat 4 will have a snare drum along with a hi-hat on. 

Rock Drum Beat 6

Let’s move on to playing straight eighth notes. This is arguably your most common hi-hat pattern when playing rock beats, and you’ll hear it in almost every song. 

The groove you’re seeing here is called a straight eighth groove. It’s basically the first groove that every beginner learns, but it’s such an important drum beat in rock drumming. 

You’re going to play your hi-hat in an eighth note subdivision. You’re then going to play your bass drum on beats 1 and 3 and your snare drum on beats 2 and 4. 

Rock Drum Beat 7

In this groove, we’re going to add a second bass drum note to the mix. Your second kick drums will come on the “and” counts of beats 1 and 3. So, just remember that you’re going to play two consecutive bass drum notes before you play a snare drum. 

This is the classic “We Will Rock You” drum beat, but this version also has you playing eighth notes on the hi-hat to keep better timing. 

Rock Drum Beat 8

This next groove takes your basic straight eighth groove and adds a bit of a twist. Instead of playing the bass drum on beat 3, you’re going to play it on the “and” of beat 3. This adds a bit of suspense to the groove, but it also sounds quite bouncy. 

Believe it or not, this is another one of the most popular drum grooves you’ll hear in rock music. It also gets played a lot in pop and other styles. 

I remember seeing Brandon Scott do a YouTube video showing just how overused it is. It’s a great one to learn, though! 

Rock Drum Beat 9

In this groove, you’re going to play a bass drum on count 1 and the “and” of 1. You’ll then play a snare drum on count 2, followed by another snare drum on count 3. On the “and” of 3, you’ll play a bass drum. 

You’ll end the groove by playing a snare on count 4 and a hi-hat alone on the “and” of 4. 

Having three snare drums in this groove makes it sound very punchy and lively, which makes it fun to play! 

Rock Drum Beat 10

Here’s another syncopated drum beat to learn. You’ll get two bass drum notes on beat 1. You’ll then have a rest on beat 2, moving the snare drum to the “and” count. 

You’ll do the same on beat 3, but you’ll play a bass drum on the “and” count instead of a snare drum. You’ll then play a typical snare drum note on beat 4. 

This one is fairly similar to the popular groove we looked at earlier, but it’s a bit more dynamic and expressive. 

Rock Drum Beat 11

We’re now going to add sixteenth notes to the mix. For this groove, you’re going to play two bass drums on beat 1 and on the “and” count of beat 1. 

For beat 2, you’ll start by playing a snare drum. You’ll then play a hi-hat alone on the “and” count. You’ll then play another snare note on the “a” count. So when you count this beat, count “2 e + a”. That’s how you count sixteenth notes. 

The rest of the groove is a repeat of the first two beats of the bar, but you’ll leave out the sixteenth note snare shot at the end. 

With grooves like this, the bass drum notes often match to rhythms of a bass guitar. 

Rock Drum Beat 12

This next groove is an epic one that sounds big and powerful. You’ll be tempted to play the syncopated snare drums as ghost notes, but try to get them sounding as even as possible to create fullness in the sound. 

On beat 1, you’re going to play a snare drum on the “e” count. You’ll play bass drums on the downbeat and the “and” count. 

Beat 2 will have a snare drum on the downbeat as well as the “a” count. Beat 3 repeats the pattern from beat 1, while beat 4 just has a single snare stroke. 

Rock Drum Beat 13

Here’s a groove very similar to Dave Grohl’s famous drum part for Smells Like Teen Spirit. It mixes syncopated snare drum patterns with a busy kick drum pattern that includes a double kick rhythm before beat 4. 

We’ll focus on beat 3 here, as the rest of the beats are similar to what we played in the last few grooves. 

You’ll start with a bass drum on beat 3, and then you’ll play a snare drum on the “e” count. After that, you’ll play two bass drums in a row on the “and” and “a” counts. 

Rock Drum Beat 14

Here’s another groove that will put your bass drum foot speed to the test. It’s a standard eighth note drum groove, but you’re going to play two sixteenth notes on the bass drum on beats 1 and 3. 

The trick here is to get both of those notes sounding the same. What typically happens is that your foot plays the pedal a bit lighter on the second note, making it sound softer. So, make sure to keep your pedal consistency when playing the groove. 

I’ve found that it helps to keep your foot a bit lower down the pedal so that you get more power from the beater. 

Rock Drum Beat 15

This groove builds on the last one. You’re going to keep the same rhythm at the beginning, but then you’ll change things up at beat 2. 

You’ll play a bass drum on the “a” count of the second beat. You’ll then play a snare drum on the “e” of beat 3, followed by two bass drums before beat 4. 

I love playing grooves like this, as hitting the bass drum on a syncopated count always makes it a lot of fun. 

Rock Drum Beat 16

Now, we’re going to move to playing sixteenth notes with both hands. For this first groove, you’re going to keep your hands on the hi-hat.

While playing those sixteenth notes, you’re going to move your right hand over to the snare drum on beats 2 and 4 to play the backbeat rhythm.

You’ll then play a bass drum on beats 1 and 3. Many people would consider this a funk groove, but it starts to sound big and heavy when you speed it up!

Rock Drum Beat 17

This next groove looks very similar to the last one. It also sounds the same. However, there’s a key difference in how you play it. 

You’re going to now play all of the sixteenth notes with one hand on the hi-hat. This will be much harder to play at high speeds, but it’s an important technique that you need to develop to play other interesting rock grooves. 

Both this groove and the previous one are vital to learn, as each groove offers the potential to play various patterns. 

Rock Drum Beat 18

Another thing that happens often in rock music is crash-riding. This is when you play a crash cymbal the same way you’d play hi-hats or a ride. 

This groove is quite a basic one, but it will get you accustomed to playing the crash in this way. 

You’ll play quarter notes on the crash cymbal while keeping a snare drum backbeat on beats 2 and 4. The first bass drum will land on beat 1, while the second bass drum will land on the “and” of beat 3. 

Rock Drum Beat 19

Here’s another crash-riding groove that’s a bit more complicated to play. You’ll keep the quarter notes going on the crash, but you’ll have dynamic rhythms between the snare drum and bass drum. 

The bass drum will land on beat 1 and on the “and” of beat 1. It will also come on the “and” of beat 3.

Your snare drum will be on beat 2, the “a” count of beat 2, beat 4, and on the “and” count of beat 4. 

Rock Drum Beat 20

Our final groove will move us to playing eighth notes on the crash cymbal. In rock drumming, this is how you can create the biggest and most powerful noise, so this will be the loudest groove on this list to play. 

It’s a simple groove with similar snare and bass patterns to what we’ve already played within the list, so mainly focus on playing the crash cymbal notes confidently. 

Conclusion

Remember to play all of those grooves a bit louder and prouder than usual. That’s how you’ll get that big rock sound. The great thing about rock is that you don’t need to be a technically gifted drummer like jazz drummers do. You just need to be confident. 

The cool thing about the grooves we looked at is that you can fit them in within most straightforward rock tunes. So, put on your favorite hard rock tunes and try to play them to a bunch of different songs. 

A lot of the grooves also carry over to styles like hip hop and punk, which is great!