Funk Drum Pattern — Free MIDI & Breakdown

Funk drumming was codified in the mid-1960s by players like Clyde Stubblefield behind James Brown, who moved the emphasis onto beat one and filled the space between backbeats with ghost notes on the snare. The pattern on this page is 4 voices on a 16-step grid at 104 BPM — swung 16ths — a 56:44 long-short split, close to a light shuffle — and the tempo, length and humanisation are yours to change before you download it as General MIDI.

The funk pattern, step by step

What each drum is doing

Tempo and feel

Funk is normally played between 95 and 120 BPM. This pattern defaults to 104 BPM and the tool will write it anywhere from 60 to 200. The feel is swung 16ths — a 56:44 long-short split, close to a light shuffle, meaning each pair of 16ths is split 56:44 rather than evenly.

How it works

Each genre comes with a curated groove — kick, snare or clap, hats, and percussion — programmed on a 16-step grid at the genre's natural tempo. The pattern is written using the General MIDI drum map on channel 10, so it triggers the right sounds in any GM-compatible drum plugin, sampler, or hardware module. Swung genres like hip-hop and lo-fi include their characteristic shuffle, and the humanize option adds subtle velocity variation so the groove breathes. Press play preview to hear two bars of the pattern before downloading. This page arrives preset to Funk, whose groove defaults to 104 BPM — inside the 95–120 BPM pocket the genre lives in — though the slider lets you drag it anywhere from 60 to 200.

Using the MIDI in your DAW

• Drag the file onto a drum instrument track — the GM mapping places kick at C1 and snare at D1.
• Swap individual hits or double the pattern to build fills and variations.
• Layer two genres (say house kicks under funk hats) for hybrid grooves.

Set your project tempo to 104 BPM before dragging the file in and the funk pattern will land at its intended feel — then nudge the tempo to taste once the rest of the track is sketched.

These are starting points — for evolving, arrangement-aware funk drum programming across a whole track, open the MIDI Maker studio and generate a full song.

Drum MIDI patterns for other genres

• House drum MIDI
• Techno drum MIDI
• Boom Bap Hip-Hop drum MIDI
• Trap drum MIDI
• Drum & Bass drum MIDI
• Pop / Rock drum MIDI
• Reggaeton drum MIDI
• Lo-fi drum MIDI
• Afrobeat drum MIDI

Or head back to the drum MIDI generator to tweak the length, tempo, and feel yourself.

Keep building: scales, chords and more

• Scale to MIDI tool
• Chord progression to MIDI tool
• Audio to MIDI converter

Frequently asked questions

What tempo is a funk drum pattern?

Funk is normally played between 95 and 120 BPM; this pattern defaults to 104 BPM and the tool lets you set anywhere from 60 to 200 before downloading. The feel is swung 16ths — a 56:44 long-short split, close to a light shuffle.

Where do the kick and snare fall in a funk beat?

Kick on beat 1, the a of 1, the and of 2, the e of 3, the and of 3 and the and of 4; Snare on beat 2, the a of 2, the e of 3, beat 4 and the a of 4; Closed hi-hat every 16th, a continuous run; Open hi-hat on the a of 2. That is 28 hits across the bar.

What drum sounds does the MIDI file trigger?

The pattern is written on MIDI channel 10 using the General MIDI drum map (kick at 36, snare at 38, closed hi-hat at 42, open hi-hat at 46), so it triggers the right sounds in any GM-compatible drum plugin, sampler, or hardware module.

Is this funk drum MIDI free to use?

Yes — the download is free, requires no sign-up, and the generated groove is royalty-free for personal and commercial tracks.