Billie Jean · Michael Jackson

144 bars of 4/4 at 117 BPM, about 4:55 of playing, on crash, hi-hat, snare, high tom, mid tom, floor tom, kick and hi-hat foot.

Funk / SoulPop90 to 119 BPMBeginner
TEMPO
117 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
144
LENGTH
4:55
DIFFICULTY
56/100
THE BEAT

One bar, and 99% of the song

The beat the song is built on is one bar, played through bars 1-81 and 83-144 -- 99.3% of every bar the kit plays. Learn that one and the song is very nearly finished.

LOOP · 117 BPM
BILLIE JEAN · BAR 1
THE SHAPE

How the song is built

144 bars: 144 keep time. The longest unbroken stretch of time is bars 1-144.

OUTRO
1 grooveAFill into the next barFill that ends a sectionInto the next partStop / hitRest

Questions

What BPM is Billie Jean?

117 BPM, in 4/4, with the time kept in sixteenth notes. The room plays it at any tempo from a quarter of that up to the written one, against the record where the record can follow.

Is Billie Jean hard to play on drums?

56 out of 100, a step up from a first song, and the work is in the independence between the hands and the feet. The beat itself is 28 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

144 bars, about 4:55 at the written tempo. The course takes it in a single sitting of 3 exercises.

What do I need on the kit?

crash, hi-hat, snare, high tom, mid tom, floor tom, kick and hi-hat foot. That is most of a full kit; the part moves around it rather than sitting in one place.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 144 BARS ANALYSED
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