Knocking on Heaven's Door | · Guns N' Roses

119 bars of 4/4 at 135 BPM, about 3:32 of playing, on crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, mid tom, floor tom and kick.

120 to 149 BPM
TEMPO
135 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
119
LENGTH
3:32
DIFFICULTY
40/100
THE BEAT

One bar, and 27% of the song

The beat the song is built on is one bar, played through bars 9, 11-23 and 25-27, and 10 more places -- 27.3% of every bar the kit plays. That is the spine of it; everything else is what happens around it.

LOOP · 135 BPM
KNOCKING ON HEAVEN'S DOOR | · BAR 11
THE BEAT, WRITTEN OUT →
THE FILLS

Where it comes off the beat

6 fills to learn, played 18 times: bars 8, 32, 44, 48, 64, 68 and 12 more.

LOOP · 135 BPM
BAR 8 · LANDS ON BAR 9 · PLAYED 5 TIMES
LOOP · 135 BPM
BAR 44 · LANDS ON BAR 45 · PLAYED 3 TIMES
LOOP · 135 BPM
BAR 48 · LANDS ON BAR 49
LOOP · 135 BPM
BAR 68 · LANDS ON BAR 69 · PLAYED 2 TIMES

2 more fills are written out on the fills page.

EVERY FILL, WRITTEN OUT →
THE SHAPE

How the song is built

119 bars across 11 sections: 61 keep time, 18 are fills, 24 are stops and 9 are silent. The longest unbroken stretch of time is bars 106-111.

COUNT-IN
PART C
PART D
PART C
PART D
CHORUS
PART F
CHORUS 2
8 groovesLCDFS1+3Fill into the next barFill that ends a sectionInto the next partStop / hitRest

Questions

What BPM is Knocking on Heaven's Door |?

135 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 Knocking on Heaven's Door | hard to play on drums?

40 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 14 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

119 bars, about 3:32 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 29 exercises over 7 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 Knocking on Heaven's Door |?

6 fills to learn, played 18 times: bars 8, 32, 44, 48, 64, 68 and 12 more.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 119 BARS ANALYSED
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