A swing (ie, triplet-based) ballad beat that would be appropriate for slow (76 BPM) standards of the 1930's, 1940's, and especially 1950's. Typical songs might be "The Great Pretender", "Unchained Melody", and "As Time Goes By".
A swing beat that would be appropriate for uptempo (130 BPM) "Big Band" jitterbugs of the 1930's and 1940's such as songs by Glenn Miller, Benny Goodman, etc. Typical songs might be "Satin Doll", "All of Me", and "String of Pearls". You'll want to play a "walking bass line" with this beat.
A Cha Cha (Latin) beat (110 BPM). Typical songs might be "Spanish Eyes", "Quando Quando", and "Never on a Sunday". It can also be used as a Rhumba.
A swing rock beat that would be appropriate for uptempo (130 BPM) "Shuffle" tunes. You could use it as a more straight-forward swing beat instead of "Big Band Swing", particularly for rather fast jitterbugs like "In the Mood" or "Mac the Knife". It's primarily used for rock tunes that have a swing feel such as "Rock Around the Clock" (192 BPM) or "Just a Gigolo" (124 BPM).
A ballad beat that would be appropriate for slow (76 BPM) modern songs written after 1960. Typical songs might be "Yesterday", "The Way We Were", and Whitney Houston tunes such as "I Will Always Love You" or "The Greatest Love of All".
A disco beat. Unlike Disco B, it doesn't have that kick drum on every downbeat, so it has a less driving bottom end. On the other hand, it has a more syncopated hihat part, which tends to compensate.
The "standard" disco beat. Unlike Disco A, it has a kick drum on every downbeat, so it has a more driving bottom end. The hihat is usually on the offbeat, and in a later section, this is that often-used open hihat.
A rock beat with a latin feel. What this means is that there is a bit more syncopation than with a straight rock beat, particularly with the hihat and kick. Also, there is some percussion mixed in, including Agogo and maracas. A typical latin rock might be a Gloria Estefan (ie, Miami Sound Machine) tune.
A straight rock beat with hihat eighth notes. It could be used for most any modern (non-swing) tune. You could even slow it down to 66 to 80 BPM for a rock ballad.
A waltz (3/4) beat with a jazz feel. At 90 BPM, it can be used for waltz standards such as "Somewhere My Love", "Let Me Call You Sweetheart", and "Fascination". At 75 BPM, it could be used for a slow country waltz such as "Could I Have This Dance" or "Tennesee Waltz".
A Bossa Nova beat that would be appropriate for (110 BPM) latin music, Typical songs might be "Girl from Ipanema" or "Tangerine". Also, this beat can be used with ballads played with a latin feel such as Billy Joel's "Just the Way You Are".
A fast (116 BPM) 4/4 beat that comes from Poland. You can almost think of it as cut-time. Typical polkas are "Roll Out The Barrel", "In Heaven There Is No Beer", and "Pennsylvania Polka". If you slow the tempo to 78 BPM, you can use this for a Rhinelander dance.
NOTE: When you double-click upon one of the following file, the file will download to your computer and play. To permanently save the MIDI file on your hard drive, click the right mouse button once upon the MIDI file's name to open its pop-up menu and select Save Target as....
This MIDI file contains a track that plays each drum note of a General MIDI drum kit, one note at a time, in ascending order (starting with the Acoustic Bass Drum and ending with the Open Triangle). Play this file to check the sounds in your GM drum kit. A second track displays a lyric event for each drum sound, which gives the name of the drum sound. If your sequencer can display lyrics during playback, then open a Lyric window for the second track.