Hotel California · The Eagles

121 bars, 6:38, at 73 BPM: slow enough that every note is exposed. Crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, mid tom, floor tom, kick and hi-hat foot and nothing else.

RockUnder 90 BPMIntermediate
TEMPO
73 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
121
LENGTH
6:38
DIFFICULTY
51/100
THE BEAT

One bar, and 51% of the song

The beat the song is built on is one bar, played through bars 17-31, 33 and 35, and 21 more places -- 51.3% of every bar the kit plays. Learn that one and most of the song is already under your hands.

LOOP · 73 BPM
HOTEL CALIFORNIA · BAR 17
THE BEAT, WRITTEN OUT →
THE FILLS

Where it comes off the beat

10 fills to learn, played 22 times: bars 32, 36, 48, 56, 60, 72 and 16 more.

LOOP · 73 BPM
BAR 32 · LANDS ON BAR 33 · PLAYED 4 TIMES
LOOP · 73 BPM
BAR 36 · LANDS ON BAR 37
LOOP · 73 BPM
BAR 60 · LANDS ON BAR 61 · PLAYED 5 TIMES
LOOP · 73 BPM
BAR 72 · LANDS ON BAR 73

6 more fills are written out on the fills page.

EVERY FILL, WRITTEN OUT →
THE SHAPE

How the song is built

121 bars across 9 sections: 83 keep time, 22 are fills and 8 are silent. The longest unbroken stretch of time is bars 18-31.

COUNT-IN
PART A
CHORUS
PART M
CHORUS 2
OUTRO
OUTRO 2
6 groovesCMAES1+1Fill into the next barFill that ends a sectionInto the next partStop / hitRest

Questions

What BPM is Hotel California?

73 BPM, in 4/4, with the time kept in sixteenth notes. Slow enough to hear every mistake, which is why the room lets you sit at the written tempo rather than under it.

Is Hotel California hard to play on drums?

51 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 31 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

121 bars, about 6:38 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 32 exercises over 8 sittings, about 26 minutes each.

What do I need on the kit?

crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, 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 Hotel California?

10 fills to learn, played 22 times: bars 32, 36, 48, 56, 60, 72 and 16 more.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 121 BARS ANALYSED
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