Press Play for a funk drum beat at 110 BPM. It starts with Afrobeat Pulse, and you can switch to Funky Drummer, Cissy Strut Pocket, Superstition Pocket, Purdie-Style Straight Funk, Stubblefield-Style Ghosts, Two-Handed Hat Funk and Second-Line Funk. One beat lasts 545 ms.
Playing over a funk drum beat at 110 BPM
110 BPM is at the fast end for funk. Stay relaxed: if your hands tense up or you start rushing, drop back ten BPM, play the part cleanly for a few minutes, then come back up.
What plays at 110 BPM
Afrobeat Pulse is written at 108 BPM, so 110 BPM is its home tempo. In 4/4 at this tempo a quarter note lasts 545 ms, an eighth note 273 ms and a sixteenth 136 ms, which is the spacing of the hi-hat you hear. Switch to Funky Drummer, Cissy Strut Pocket, Superstition Pocket, Purdie-Style Straight Funk, Stubblefield-Style Ghosts, Two-Handed Hat Funk and Second-Line Funk on the page and the tempo stays at 110 BPM.
How long is a phrase at 110 BPM?
Knowing how long a phrase lasts helps you plan a song, a solo or a recording take. The drums play a fill at the end of every four or eight bars, so these are the lengths you will hear.
Phrase lengths at 110 BPM
Length
Time
One bar of 4/4
2.2 seconds
Four-bar phrase
8.7 seconds
Eight-bar section
17 seconds
Three-minute song
about 83 bars
How a funk drum beat works
Funk lives on the sixteenth notes. The kick lands on off-beats, quiet ghost notes fill the snare line, and the hi-hat keeps a steady sixteenth grid. Everything else in the band plugs into that grid, so the job is to feel all four sixteenths of every beat.
How to play along
Guitarists: keep your strumming hand moving in sixteenths the whole time and only let the strings speak on some of them. Bassists: lock to the kick and leave rests; the space is part of the groove. Start slower than you think and speed up only when the muted strokes are even.