How to make beats and basslines for electronic music and EDM

Some of our new members at the NUS Electronic Music Lab gave us feedback that they're not familiar with how to make beats and basslines because they started out with conventional classical music training (e.g. piano classes). Since beats and basslines are the backbone of most popular music, forming the rhythm section of pop and rock and  EDM, it's important to learn how to create them. Fortunately there are ample resources online, and this is a selection of them.

Basslines


Low End Theory - Exploring 8 Bassline Styles - more in depth, with examples from classic songs

Dotted bassline patterns for deep grooves - step by step examples in Ableton Live


How to make basslines from House to 808s - video tutorial in FL Studio, but you can copy the patterns


Rolling basslines that music producers should know - video tutorial in Logic but you can copy the patterns



Beats and Rhythms

Drum Patterns for Electronic Dance Music - many different patterns for different genres



The site also offers a free e-book with different patterns


How to make drum patterns - video tutorial




This post was updated in August 2025 to remove some links which had become spam sites. To learn more about what we do at the NUS EML (National University of Singapore Electronic Music Lab) visit us at https://nuseml.com or follow us on Instagram @emusiclab

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