Press Play for a reggae drum beat at 90 BPM. It starts with Roots Reggae Steppers, and you can switch to Reggae One Drop, Barrett-Style One Drop, Flying Cymbal Reggae, Sly Dunbar-Style Rockers, Dub Echo Pocket and UK Digital Steppers. One beat lasts 667 ms.
Playing over a reggae drum beat at 90 BPM
90 BPM is at the fast end for reggae. 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 90 BPM
Roots Reggae Steppers is written at 80 BPM, the closest of this style's grooves to 90 BPM, so it opens first and plays a little faster than written. In 4/4 at this tempo a quarter note lasts 667 ms, an eighth note 333 ms and a sixteenth 167 ms, which is the spacing of the hi-hat you hear. Switch to Reggae One Drop, Barrett-Style One Drop, Flying Cymbal Reggae, Sly Dunbar-Style Rockers, Dub Echo Pocket and UK Digital Steppers on the page and the tempo stays at 90 BPM.
How long is a phrase at 90 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 90 BPM
Length
Time
One bar of 4/4
2.7 seconds
Four-bar phrase
11 seconds
Eight-bar section
21 seconds
Three-minute song
about 68 bars
How a reggae drum beat works
In the one drop the drummer leaves beat one empty and puts the weight on beat three. The groove feels slow and heavy even when the hi-hat moves quickly. Leaving that space is the whole point.
How to play along
Guitarists and keys: play short chord "skanks" on the off-beats, the "and" of every beat, and mute them straight away. Bassists: leave beat one empty too, or play around it, and make the line melodic. Keep your volume down; reggae is about space.