Chapter 4 of 13 · All chapters

Part 1 · Rhythm basics

  1. 01The beat and tempo
  2. 02Bars, beats and 16 steps
  3. 03Kick, snare and hi-hat

Part 2 · Your hands on the pads

  1. 04The 16-pad layout
  2. 05Which fingers play what
  3. 06Tap, don't press

Part 3 · Grooves

  1. 07The basic beat
  2. 0816th hats and finger rolls
  3. 09Syncopation
  4. 10Fills

Part 4 · Feel and style

  1. 11Accents and ghost notes
  2. 12Swing
  3. 13Beats in different styles

Learn · Part 2: Your hands on the pads · Chapter 4

The 16-pad layout

Almost every finger drumming setup is a grid of 16 pads, and most of them put the sounds in the same places. Learn this layout once and it works on an MPC, a Maschine, a Push, a phone app or this site.

One grid, every device

The 4×4 pad grid comes from the Akai MPC drum machines of the late '80s, and it stuck. Maschine uses it, Ableton Push shows a 4×4 drum area on its bigger grid, and so do most apps. On an MPC, pad 1 is bottom-left and the numbers go left to right, bottom row first.

The standard drum layout

There's no law, but most kits are arranged like this, and so is every kit on this site:

  • Bottom row: kick bottom-left, snare next to it, then closed and open hi-hat.
  • Second row: a second kick, a clap, and a second pair of hats.
  • Upper rows: toms, rim, percussion and cymbals, reached for fills and colour.

Beats live mostly on the bottom two rows, so that's where your hands rest. On a computer keyboard the grid maps to 1–4, Q–R, A–F and Z–V.

Find the sounds

Study the grid, then press Start. The names disappear and you find each sound by its position alone. Kick, hat and tom sit on more than one pad; any of them counts.

Press Start and find each sound as fast as you can.

Play it a few times. When you can find all eight without hesitating, the layout is in your hands.

Why some sounds are doubled

The kick and the closed hat each appear twice. That's on purpose: fast parts are easier when two fingers share them. Alternating two hat pads lets you play even 16th notes (chapter 8), and two kick pads make quick double kicks possible. Most experienced finger drummers double at least these two sounds in their own kits.

Banks: more than 16 sounds

Hardware like the MPC has pad banks: a button switches all 16 pads to a new set of sounds. Beginners can ignore banks. It's better to know one bank of 16 perfectly than four banks vaguely.