Drum beat in the style of “Insomnia” — Faithless

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Faithless’ 1995 trance-house classic is driven by a relentless four-on-the-floor beat. Consistency is everything.

Tempo
127 BPM
Time signature
4/4
Groove
house beat
Genre
Electronic
Difficulty
Easy
Loop
1 bar

Drum pattern

Main groove
Open hi-hat
Clap
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 hand4
Snare hand2
Kick foot4
Kick notes without a cymbal4

The tricky spot is the 4 kick notes that fall between cymbal strokes — practice hand and foot on their own there before playing the whole groove.

About this groove

At about 127 BPM it has an up-tempo feel: one beat lasts 472 ms and a 4/4 bar takes 1.9 seconds. Use the tempo buttons to slow it down while you learn.

Practice plan

BPM

Learn At 127 BPM, “Insomnia” is faster than 68% of the 150 songs in our catalogue. See all song tempos →

120 174 BPM Insomnia · 127
Tempo among our electronic songs

Step-by-step breakdown of the house beat →

How it differs from similar beats

Compared with “Could You Be Loved” (Bob Marley & The Wailers, rockers reggae beat), this groove adds snare accents on 2 and 4 and drops the snare on 3 — and it runs 24 BPM faster. If you can already play that one, this is your next step. Could You Be Loved →

“Levels” (Avicii) uses exactly the same simplified pattern, 1 BPM slower — a good warm-up before this one. Levels →

Other songs with the same house beat

Similar drum beats

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