Drum beat in the style of “Respect” — Aretha Franklin

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Aretha Franklin’s 1967 anthem pushes forward with a tight soul groove. It is a great song for practising strong, confident backbeats.

Tempo
115 BPM
Time signature
4/4
Groove
Motown beat
Genre
Soul & Motown
Difficulty
Easy
Loop
4 bars

Drum pattern

Main groove × 3
Hi-hat
Snare
Kick
Fill × 1
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 hand4
Kick foot3
Kick notes without a cymbal1
All three together2

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

About this groove

At about 115 BPM it has a medium tempo: one beat lasts 522 ms and a 4/4 bar takes 2.1 seconds. Use the tempo buttons to slow it down while you learn.

Practice plan

BPM

Learn At 115 BPM, “Respect” is faster than 41% of the 150 songs in our catalogue. See all song tempos →

60 144 BPM Respect · 115
Tempo among our soul & motown songs

Step-by-step breakdown of the Motown beat →

How it differs from similar beats

Compared with “Highway to Hell” (AC/DC, basic rock beat), this groove adds kick notes on 2a and adds snare accents on 1 and 3 — and it runs 1 BPM slower. If you can already play that one, this is your next step. Highway to Hell →

“I Heard It Through the Grapevine” (Marvin Gaye) uses exactly the same simplified pattern, 1 BPM faster — a good next step once this one feels easy. I Heard It Through the Grapevine →

Other songs with the same Motown beat

Similar drum beats

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