Drum beat in the style of “Le Freak” — Chic

Loading the 3D drum kit…

Chic’s 1978 hit features Tony Thompson’s powerful disco drumming. Four on the floor, open hi-hats and a solid snare make it irresistible.

Tempo
120 BPM
Time signature
4/4
Groove
disco beat
Genre
Disco
Difficulty
Easy
Loop
4 bars

Drum pattern

Main groove × 3
Open hi-hat
Hi-hat
Snare
Kick
Fill × 1
Open hi-hat
Hi-hat
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
All three together2

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 120 BPM it has an up-tempo feel: one beat lasts 500 ms and a 4/4 bar takes 2 seconds. Use the tempo buttons to slow it down while you learn.

Practice plan

BPM

Learn At 120 BPM, “Le Freak” is faster than 53% of the 150 songs in our catalogue. See all song tempos →

101 130 BPM Le Freak · 120
Tempo among our disco songs

Step-by-step breakdown of the disco beat →

How it differs from similar beats

Compared with “Every Breath You Take” (The Police, straight pop beat), this groove adds kick notes on 2 and 4, plays quarter notes on the cymbal instead of straight 8ths and opens the hi-hat — and it runs 3 BPM faster. If you can already play that one, this is your next step. Every Breath You Take →

“I Will Survive” (Gloria Gaynor) uses exactly the same simplified pattern, 3 BPM slower — a good warm-up before this one. I Will Survive →

Other songs with the same disco beat

Similar drum beats

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