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Music is often referred to as a universal language.
A major reason for this is because music across genres, geographies, and generations regularly share universal patterns. In the tutorial video above, Nick Chen breaks down ten rhythmic, melodic, and harmonic musical patterns that every music creator needs to know.
Watch along above to hear each pattern in action, and see highlights below, as well as timecodes for where they’re discussed in the video. With each topic, Nick also shares examples from both popular music and actual productions in the DAW so we can better understand how they’re applied in context.
Feel free to use the table of contents below to navigate to a specific musical pattern.
The 10 musical patterns you need to know:
- Asymmetrical rhythms
- Polyrhythms
- Velocity patterns
- Swing
- Contour
- Arpeggios
- Counterpoint
- Tertiary harmony
- Inversions
- Harmonic rhythm
Let’s dive in!
1. Asymmetrical rhythms
Asymmetrical rhythms are musical patterns built on uneven groupings of beats (ex. groupings of two and three).
A four-on-the-floor pattern is a great example of a symmetrical pattern—as soon as you add some asymmetry to this foundation, the energy changes completely. You start to get really effective grooves when you blend both symmetry and asymmetry to achieve a balance between drive and bounce.
Go to 0:35 in the video to hear some asymmetrical rhythms in action.
2. Polyrhythms
A polyrhythm is a groove where two or more different rhythmic feelings are stacked on top of each other. For example, a three-over-two polyrhythm can be achieved by stacking three evenly spaced hi-hats over two evenly spaced kicks.
When making polyrhythms, it’s good to know how your DAW handles odd subdivisions of the grid. Beyond what we cover at 1:41 in the video, you can also check out our dedicated guide on polyrhythms for more examples, tips, and techniques:
3. Velocity patterns
Something that’s key for humanizing your MIDI rhythms is making use of velocity patterns. Velocity is the MIDI value that affects the loudness, and sometimes in relation the timbre, of a sound.
Try also using asymmetry here—and while velocity patterns are particularly excellent for drums, you can and should consider applying them across every instrument. Even with sample chops, lower velocity notes can function as grace notes.
Go to 3:05 in the video to hear velocity patterns in action.
4. Swing
In music, swing refers to interpreting eighth notes more like triplets, although the term can be broadly applied to any rhythm that gets off the quantization grid.
Each DAW will have a slightly different workflow for implementing swing—one of the best ways to add swing to your beats is to play your patterns in, and then quantize to your liking. Or, you can make the choice to avoid quantization altogether for a more organic-sounding swing. As a producer, you can even swing automation and effects.
One of the most famous producers known for their swing was J Dilla:
Go to 3:34 in the video to learn more about swing.
5. Contour
Contour refers to the overall shape of a melody as its pitches rise, fall, or remain the same.
If a note only travels by a semitone or two from the previous note, that’s considered a step, whereas bigger jumps are considered leaps. Another important aspect of contour is the overall range of the melody, as well as looking for any repetitive structures or motifs.
The best way to explore contours is to transcribe your favorite melodies—when you transcribe a musical pattern, you’re able to better identify its themes and implement its characteristics that you enjoy in an original way in your own work.
Go to 6:36 in the video to hear us dive into the world of melodic contours.
6. Arpeggios
Another type of pattern you can also use for melodies is arpeggios. An arpeggio is a type of broken chord where each note is played individually.
In addition to standard up-and-down patterns, you can also implement “figured” arpeggios, where you occasionally break out of the established pattern for variance. These can be great for making ambient melodies, especially with the aid of effects processing.
Go to 8:00 in the video to hear some standard and figured arpeggios in action.
7. Counterpoint
Counterpoint is the art of combining multiple melodic lines to create harmonically rich music. These lines will often feature contrasting melodic and rhythmic contours.
While counterpoint is a term that’s often associated with classical music, the general idea of using contrasting rhythms and contours is very applicable in popular music as well.
Go to 8:58 in the video to hear us explore counterpoint using modern workflows like the Fugue Machine app and Splice Bridge.
8. Tertiary harmony
In addition to counterpart, another important type of harmonic pattern to consider is tertiary harmony, which describes harmonic structures built out of major and minor thirds. If you start with any note in your piano roll and start stacking notes every three or four semitones apart, you’ll be creating major or minor triads, which can themselves be stacked to create seventh chords and extended chords.
Go to 10:35 in the video for more one tertiary harmonies, and how tools like FL Studio’s Stamp feature can facilitate your exploration of them.
9. Inversions
An inversion rearranges a chord’s pitches in such a way where a note besides the root (bass note) is put in the lowest position. Inversions are another very important type of musical pattern, particularly useful for creating contour in harmonic lines.
If you repeat the same root position-based movement, your chord progressions can get boring very quickly. Moving some of the lower notes up and the upper notes down can help you create smoother-sounding progressions, as well as experiment with the nuances of their emotional impact.
Go to 11:11 in the video to hear some common chord inversion examples.
10. Harmonic rhythm
Last but certainly not least, one of the most important patterns in music to consider is harmonic rhythm. Harmonic rhythm describes the pace at which your chords change.
When making music on autopilot, you might find yourself putting block chords on the downbeat of each measure—however, changing up the timing and duration of some of these chords, even slightly, can have a significant impact on the energy and momentum of your track.
Go to 12:40 in the video to hear some variations in harmonic rhythm.
Get the sounds and explore musical patterns firsthand
And there you have it! If you enjoyed any of the samples that were featured in the video and want to use them in your own productions, you can download them via this Collection.
Which musical patterns were most interesting to you? What other patterns are also key that we didn’t cover above? Let us know in the comments section of the video, and subscribe to the Splice YouTube channel for more tips, tutorials, and insights.
Explore royalty-free sounds from leading artists, producers, and sound designers:
June 15, 2026
