Breakdown · Guns N' Roses

239 bars of 4/4 at a walking 84 BPM, 11:23 of playing, on crash, hi-hat, snare, high tom, mid tom, floor tom, kick and hi-hat foot.

RockMetalUnder 90 BPM
TEMPO
84 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
239
LENGTH
11:23
DIFFICULTY
39/100
THE BEAT

One bar, and 34% of the song

The beat the song is built on is one bar, played through bars 25-28, 144-146 and 148-162, and 1 more place -- 34% of every bar the kit plays. That is the spine of it; everything else is what happens around it.

LOOP · 84 BPM
BREAKDOWN · BAR 26
THE BEAT, WRITTEN OUT →
THE FILLS

Where it comes off the beat

15 fills to learn, played 27 times: bars 20, 29, 59, 64, 65, 66 and 21 more.

LOOP · 84 BPM
BAR 20 · LANDS ON BAR 21
LOOP · 84 BPM
BAR 29 · LANDS ON BAR 30
LOOP · 84 BPM
BAR 59 · LANDS ON BAR 60 · PLAYED 3 TIMES
LOOP · 84 BPM
BARS 64-67 · LANDS ON BAR 68 · PLAYED 4 TIMES

11 more fills are written out on the fills page.

EVERY FILL, WRITTEN OUT →
THE SHAPE

How the song is built

239 bars across 18 sections: 177 keep time, 27 are fills, 12 are stops and 4 are silent. The longest unbroken stretch of time is bars 169-225.

PART B
PART K
PART A
PART A
PART S
CHORUS 2
OUTRO
13 groovesIASMK+8Fill into the next barFill that ends a sectionInto the next partStop / hitRest

Questions

What BPM is Breakdown?

84 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 Breakdown hard to play on drums?

39 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 22 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

239 bars, about 11:23 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 60 exercises over 13 sittings, about 27 minutes each.

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.

How many fills are in Breakdown?

15 fills to learn, played 27 times: bars 20, 29, 59, 64, 65, 66 and 21 more.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 239 BARS ANALYSED
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