Livin on a Prayer · Jon Bon Jovi

128 bars of 4/4 at 123 BPM, about 4:09 of playing, on crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, mid tom, floor tom, kick and hi-hat foot.

120 to 149 BPM
TEMPO
123 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
128
LENGTH
4:09
DIFFICULTY
51/100
THE BEAT

One bar, and 30% of the song

The beat the song is built on is one bar, played through bars 40, 42 and 44-46, and 21 more places -- 29.8% of every bar the kit plays. That is the spine of it; everything else is what happens around it.

LOOP · 123 BPM
LIVIN ON A PRAYER · BAR 40
THE BEAT, WRITTEN OUT →
THE FILLS

Where it comes off the beat

7 fills to learn, played 12 times: bars 11, 23, 39, 47, 55, 57 and 6 more.

LOOP · 123 BPM
BAR 11 · LANDS ON BAR 12
LOOP · 123 BPM
BAR 23 · LANDS ON BAR 24
LOOP · 123 BPM
BAR 39 · LANDS ON BAR 40 · PLAYED 4 TIMES
LOOP · 123 BPM
BAR 47 · LANDS ON BAR 48 · PLAYED 2 TIMES

3 more fills are written out on the fills page.

EVERY FILL, WRITTEN OUT →
THE SHAPE

How the song is built

128 bars across 16 sections: 70 keep time, 12 are fills, 29 are stops and 7 are silent. The longest unbroken stretch of time is bars 58-71.

COUNT-IN
PART A
PART C
CHORUS
PART G
PART C
CHORUS 2
CHORUS 3
OUTRO 2
7 groovesHCGAS1+2Fill into the next barFill that ends a sectionInto the next partStop / hitRest

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?

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

How long is the drum part?

128 bars, about 4:09 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 33 exercises over 8 sittings, about 27 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 Livin on a Prayer?

7 fills to learn, played 12 times: bars 11, 23, 39, 47, 55, 57 and 6 more.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 128 BARS ANALYSED
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