← SONGS

Hells Bells · AC/DC

EXERCISE 34 OF 41
Run D1 · Part D (bars 91-99)
110 / 124 BARS COVERED
0 / 41 PASSED · 9 BARS LIT · IN THE PART D
PART B
CHORUS
PART I
CHORUS 2
PART I
CHORUS 3
PART I
PART D
CHORUS 4
OUTRO
7 groovesEIBPD+2Fill into the next barFill that ends a sectionInto the next partStop / hitRest
GROOVE · 8
FILL · 6
LAND · 6
RUN · 3
JOIN · 8
LINK · 4
SECTION · 5
WHOLE SONG · 1
ABOUT THIS DRUM PART

How to play Hells Bells on drums

124 bars of 4/4 at a walking 108 BPM, 4:36 of playing, on crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, mid tom, floor tom and kick.

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

TEMPO
108 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
124
LENGTH
4:36
DIFFICULTY
44/100

ride through bars 2-13, hi-hat through bars 14-120 and toms through bars 121-124.

The beat

The beat the song is built on is one bar, played through bars 22, 25 and 27-33, and 8 more places -- 23.8% of every bar the kit plays. This one moves around more than most: the beat is where to start, not the whole job.

    22
    1e+a2e+a3e+a4e+a
HH |x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-|
SD |----x-------x---|
BD |x-------x-------|
Hells Bells -- the groove · x hit · o open hi-hat · g ghost note · r cross-stick · X accent

The fills

6 fills to learn, played 12 times: bars 13, 65, 69, 89, 95, 97 and 6 more.

What the course does

It cuts the song into 34 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 -- I, D -- 4 exercises, about 27 minutes.
  2. The grooves the song is built on -- E -- 6 exercises, about 30 minutes.
  3. Bars 15-73 -- 3 exercises, about 30 minutes.
  4. Bars 13-66 -- 7 exercises, about 31 minutes.
  5. Through the Chorus 3 and Part I -- 2 exercises, about 18 minutes.
  6. Through Part I and Part P -- 5 exercises, about 29 minutes.
  7. Through Part P and Part D -- 6 exercises, about 31 minutes.
  8. Bars 91-117 -- 7 exercises, about 30 minutes. Open above.
  9. and 1 more sittings after that.
START THE COURSE ↑

Questions

What BPM is Hells Bells?

108 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 Hells Bells 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 27 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

124 bars, about 4:36 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 34 exercises over 9 sittings, about 26 minutes each.

What do I need on the kit?

crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, mid tom, floor tom and kick. That is most of a full kit; the part moves around it rather than sitting in one place.

How many fills are in Hells Bells?

6 fills to learn, played 12 times: bars 13, 65, 69, 89, 95, 97 and 6 more.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 124 BARS ANALYSED