← SONGS

Ballbreaker · AC/DC

EXERCISE 14 OF 23
Run A2 · Part A (bars 89-96)
120 / 144 BARS COVERED
0 / 23 PASSED · 8 BARS LIT · IN THE PART A
PART A
CHORUS
CHORUS 2
PART D
CHORUS 3
PART A
CHORUS 4
PART D
6 groovesEDAIS1+1Fill into the next barFill that ends a sectionInto the next partStop / hitRest
GROOVE · 5
FILL · 1
LAND · 1
RUN · 2
JOIN · 7
LINK · 2
SECTION · 4
WHOLE SONG · 1
ABOUT THIS DRUM PART

How to play Ballbreaker on drums

144 bars of 4/4 at 120 BPM, about 4:46 of playing, on crash, hi-hat, snare, kick and hi-hat foot.

44 out of 100 -- a fair first song -- with the independence between the hands and the feet the part that decides it.

TEMPO
120 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
144
LENGTH
4:46
DIFFICULTY
44/100

silence through bars 1-3, kick and crashes through bars 4-10, hi-hat through bars 11-56, kick and crashes through bars 57-58, hi-hat through bars 59-89 and kick and crashes through bars 90-92, and 3 more changes after that.

The beat

The beat the song is built on is one bar, played through bars 12-14, 16-27 and 29-32, and 9 more places -- 40.6% of every bar the kit plays. Learn that one and most of the song is already under your hands.

    12
    1e+a2e+a3e+a4e+a
HH |x-g-x-g-x-g-x-g-|
SD |----x-------x---|
BD |x-------x-------|
Ballbreaker -- the groove · x hit · o open hi-hat · g ghost note · r cross-stick · X accent

The fills

1 fill to learn, played 3 times: bars 92, 93 and 94.

What the course does

It cuts the song into 21 exercises -- the grooves, the fills, and the joins between sections, which is where players actually come off -- and puts them in the order a teacher would. Each one opens on a reduction you can already play and adds the notes back a rung at a time, with a tempo to reach and a gate to pass before the next.

  1. The grooves the song is built on -- E, D -- 3 exercises, about 29 minutes.
  2. Bars 13-78 -- 5 exercises, about 33 minutes.
  3. Through the Chorus 3 and Part A -- 5 exercises, about 28 minutes.
  4. Bars 89-135 -- 5 exercises, about 23 minutes. Open above.
  5. Bars 134-142 -- 4 exercises, about 28 minutes.
  6. The whole song -- 1 exercise, about 10 minutes.
START THE COURSE ↑

Questions

What BPM is Ballbreaker?

120 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 Ballbreaker hard to play on drums?

44 out of 100 -- a fair first song -- with the independence between the hands and the feet the part that decides it. The beat itself is 33 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

144 bars, about 4:46 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 21 exercises over 6 sittings, about 25 minutes each.

What do I need on the kit?

crash, hi-hat, snare, kick and hi-hat foot. Nothing in the part asks for anything else.

How many fills are in Ballbreaker?

1 fill to learn, played 3 times: bars 92, 93 and 94.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 144 BARS ANALYSED