Bullet The Blue Sky · U2

169 bars of 4/4 at 144 BPM, about 4:42 of playing, on crash, ride, hi-hat, snare and kick.

Alternative / IndieRock120 to 149 BPM
TEMPO
144 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
169
LENGTH
4:42
DIFFICULTY
46/100
THE BEAT

One bar, and 45% of the song

The beat the song is built on is one bar, played through bars 7, 9 and 11, and 60 more places -- 45% of every bar the kit plays. Learn that one and most of the song is already under your hands.

LOOP · 144 BPM
BULLET THE BLUE SKY · BAR 7
THE BEAT, WRITTEN OUT →
THE FILLS

Where it comes off the beat

4 fills to learn, played 6 times: bars 54, 74, 88, 89, 90 and 169.

LOOP · 144 BPM
BAR 54 · LANDS ON BAR 55
LOOP · 144 BPM
BAR 74 · LANDS ON BAR 75
LOOP · 144 BPM
BARS 88-90 · LANDS ON BAR 91 · PLAYED 3 TIMES
LOOP · 144 BPM
BAR 169
EVERY FILL, WRITTEN OUT →
THE SHAPE

How the song is built

169 bars across 7 sections: 154 keep time and 6 are fills. The longest unbroken stretch of time is bars 91-168.

PART B
PART C
PART C
PART J
OUTRO
OUTRO 2
5 groovesKCJBFFill into the next barFill that ends a sectionInto the next partStop / hitRest

Questions

What BPM is Bullet The Blue Sky?

144 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 Bullet The Blue Sky 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 30 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

169 bars, about 4:42 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 30 exercises over 8 sittings, about 28 minutes each.

What do I need on the kit?

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

How many fills are in Bullet The Blue Sky?

4 fills to learn, played 6 times: bars 54, 74, 88, 89, 90 and 169.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 169 BARS ANALYSED
MORE BY THIS BAND

Other U2 drum parts

EVERY U2 CHART →
AT THIS LEVEL

Play something else today

EVERY SONG A-Z →