Got Me Under Pressure · ZZ Top

157 bars at 159 BPM -- fast, and 3:57 of it without a break -- on crash, snare, high tom, mid tom, floor tom, kick and hi-hat foot.

RockJazz / Blues150 BPM and upBeginner
TEMPO
159 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
157
LENGTH
3:57
DIFFICULTY
37/100
THE BEAT

One bar, and 94% of the song

The beat the song is built on is one bar, played through bars 2-8, 10-24 and 26-48, and 4 more places -- 93.6% of every bar the kit plays. Learn that one and the song is very nearly finished.

LOOP · 159 BPM
GOT ME UNDER PRESSURE · BAR 2
THE BEAT, WRITTEN OUT →
THE FILLS

Where it comes off the beat

1 fill to learn, played 4 times: bars 86, 87, 88 and 89.

LOOP · 159 BPM
BARS 86-89 · LANDS ON BAR 90 · PLAYED 4 TIMES
EVERY FILL, WRITTEN OUT →
THE SHAPE

How the song is built

157 bars across 3 sections: 151 keep time, 4 are fills, 1 is a stop and 1 is silent. The longest unbroken stretch of time is bars 2-85.

CHORUS
OUTRO
2 groovesBS2Fill into the next barFill that ends a sectionInto the next partStop / hitRest

Questions

What BPM is Got Me Under Pressure?

159 BPM, in 4/4, with the time kept in sixteenth notes. At that speed the sixteenth notes are the whole difficulty, so the room will take it down to a quarter of it and climb back.

Is Got Me Under Pressure hard to play on drums?

37 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?

157 bars, about 3:57 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 5 exercises over 2 sittings, about 20 minutes each.

What do I need on the kit?

crash, 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 Got Me Under Pressure?

1 fill to learn, played 4 times: bars 86, 87, 88 and 89.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 157 BARS ANALYSED
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