Beat It · Michael Jackson

143 bars of 4/4 at 138 BPM, about 4:09 of playing, on crash, hi-hat, snare, floor tom and kick.

120 to 149 BPM
TEMPO
138 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
143
LENGTH
4:09
DIFFICULTY
46/100
THE BEAT

One bar, and 99% of the song

The beat the song is built on is a 2-bar phrase, played through bars 15-142 -- 98.5% of every bar the kit plays. Learn that one and the song is very nearly finished.

LOOP · 138 BPM
BEAT IT · BARS 15-16
THE FILLS

Where it comes off the beat

1 fill to learn, played 1 time: bar 14.

LOOP · 138 BPM
BAR 14 · LANDS ON BAR 15
THE SHAPE

How the song is built

143 bars across 2 sections: 128 keep time, 1 is a fill, 1 is a stop and 13 are silent. The longest unbroken stretch of time is bars 15-142.

COUNT-IN
OUTRO
2 groovesCS1Fill into the next barFill that ends a sectionInto the next partStop / hitRest

Questions

What BPM is Beat It?

138 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 Beat It hard to play on drums?

46 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 35 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

143 bars, about 4:09 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 4 exercises over 2 sittings, about 18 minutes each.

What do I need on the kit?

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

How many fills are in Beat It?

1 fill to learn, played 1 time: bar 14.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 143 BARS ANALYSED
MORE BY THIS BAND

Other Michael Jackson drum parts

EVERY MICHAEL JACKSON CHART →
AT THIS LEVEL

Play something else today

EVERY SONG A-Z →