Drum beat in the style of “99 Luftballons” — Nena

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Nena’s 1983 hit switches from a quiet start to a fast, driving new-wave beat. The main groove is quick straight 8ths — stay relaxed to keep the tempo.

Tempo
193 BPM
Time signature
4/4
Groove
driving rock beat
Genre
Pop
Difficulty
Intermediate
Loop
4 bars

Drum pattern

Main groove × 3
Hi-hat
Snare
Kick
Fill × 1
Hi-hat
High tom
Floor tom
Snare
Kick

Each row is one drum, each column one step. Large dots are accents, small dots normal hits, faint dots ghost notes.

Who plays what: notes per bar

Cymbal hand8
Snare hand2
Kick foot4

Every kick lines up with a cymbal stroke, which makes this one of the easiest coordination patterns to start with.

About this groove

At about 193 BPM it has a fast tempo: one beat lasts 311 ms and a 4/4 bar takes 1.2 seconds. Use the tempo buttons to slow it down while you learn.

Practice plan

BPM

Learn At 193 BPM, “99 Luftballons” is faster than 98% of the 150 songs in our catalogue. See all song tempos →

96 193 BPM 99 Luftballons · 193
Tempo among our pop songs

Step-by-step breakdown of the driving rock beat →

How it differs from similar beats

Compared with “Beat It” (Michael Jackson, rock beat with 8th notes), this groove adds kick notes on 1& — and it runs 54 BPM faster. If you can already play that one, this is your next step. Beat It →

“Livin’ la Vida Loca” (Ricky Martin) uses exactly the same simplified pattern, 15 BPM slower — a good warm-up before this one. Livin’ la Vida Loca →

Other songs with the same driving rock beat

Similar drum beats

This is a simplified rhythm pattern in the style of “99 Luftballons” by Nena, written for drum practice. It is not a transcription of the recording and contains no audio, lyrics or artwork. Drums3D is not affiliated with Nena.