← SONGS

Livin' On A Prayer · Bon Jovi

EXERCISE 1 OF 43
Groove D -- Chorus
0 / 127 BARS COVERED
0 / 43 PASSED · 29 BARS LIT
COUNT-IN
PART A
CHORUS
PART G
PART I
CHORUS 2
PART G
PART J
OUTRO
OUTRO 2
6 groovesDJIGA+1Fill into the next barFill that ends a sectionInto the next partStop / hitRest
GROOVE · 8
FILL · 7
LAND · 7
RUN · 2
JOIN · 7
LINK · 6
SECTION · 5
WHOLE SONG · 1
ABOUT THIS DRUM PART

How to play Livin' On A Prayer on drums

127 bars of 4/4 at 123 BPM, about 4:07 of playing, on crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, high tom, mid tom, floor tom, kick and hi-hat foot.

57 out of 100, a step up from a first song, and the work is in the independence between the hands and the feet.

TEMPO
123 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
127
LENGTH
4:07
DIFFICULTY
57/100

silence through bars 1-7, ride through bars 8-11, hi-hat through bars 12-47, ride through bars 48-55, hi-hat through bars 56-81 and ride through bars 82-98, and 3 more changes after that.

The beat

The beat the song is built on is one bar, played through bars 13-15, 17 and 19, and 7 more places -- 24.2% of every bar the kit plays. This one moves around more than most: the beat is where to start, not the whole job.

    13
    1e+a2e+a3e+a4e+a
HH |x-g-x-g-x-g-x-g-|
SD |----x-------x---|
BD |x-------x-------|
Livin' On A Prayer -- the groove · x hit · o open hi-hat · g ghost note · r cross-stick · X accent

The fills

7 fills to learn, played 11 times: bars 11, 39, 47, 57, 73, 81 and 5 more.

What the course does

It cuts the song into 35 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 -- D, I -- 2 exercises, about 24 minutes. Open above.
  2. The grooves the song is built on -- G -- 4 exercises, about 22 minutes.
  3. Through Part A and the Chorus -- 5 exercises, about 27 minutes.
  4. Bars 21-52 -- 7 exercises, about 28 minutes.
  5. Bars 49-83 -- 3 exercises, about 22 minutes.
  6. Bars 54-87 -- 5 exercises, about 33 minutes.
  7. Through Part J and Part G -- 9 exercises, about 29 minutes.
  8. Through Part G and the Outro -- 2 exercises, about 18 minutes.
  9. and 2 more sittings after that.
START THE COURSE ↑

Questions

What BPM is Livin' On A Prayer?

123 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 Livin' On A Prayer hard to play on drums?

57 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 33 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

127 bars, about 4:07 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 35 exercises over 10 sittings, about 24 minutes each.

What do I need on the kit?

crash, ride, hi-hat, 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 Livin' On A Prayer?

7 fills to learn, played 11 times: bars 11, 39, 47, 57, 73, 81 and 5 more.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 127 BARS ANALYSED