Mr. Blue Sky · Electric Light Orchestra

180 bars at 178 BPM -- fast, and 4:02 of it without a break -- on crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, high tom, mid tom, floor tom and kick.

RockPop150 BPM and upShuffle / tripletBeginner
TEMPO
178 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
180
LENGTH
4:02
DIFFICULTY
63/100
THE BEAT

One bar, and 47% of the song

The beat the song is built on is one bar, played through bars 9-11, 13-36 and 53, and 3 more places -- 47% of every bar the kit plays. Learn that one and most of the song is already under your hands.

LOOP · 178 BPM
MR. BLUE SKY · BAR 10
THE BEAT, WRITTEN OUT →
THE FILLS

Where it comes off the beat

3 fills to learn, played 5 times: bars 8, 54, 104, 160 and 162.

LOOP · 178 BPM
BAR 8 · LANDS ON BAR 9
LOOP · 178 BPM
BAR 54 · LANDS ON BAR 55 · PLAYED 2 TIMES
LOOP · 178 BPM
BAR 160 · LANDS ON BAR 161 · PLAYED 2 TIMES
EVERY FILL, WRITTEN OUT →
THE SHAPE

How the song is built

180 bars across 11 sections: 96 keep time, 5 are fills, 58 are stops and 16 are silent. The longest unbroken stretch of time is bars 143-158.

CHORUS
PART G
CHORUS 2
PART G
CHORUS 3
OUTRO
OUTRO 2
8 groovesDIGNS7+3Fill into the next barFill that ends a sectionInto the next partStop / hitRest

Questions

What BPM is Mr. Blue Sky?

178 BPM, in 4/4, with the time kept in thirty-second notes. At that speed the thirty-second notes are the whole difficulty, so the room will take it down to a quarter of it and climb back.

Is Mr. Blue Sky hard to play on drums?

63 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 49 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

180 bars, about 4:02 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 25 exercises over 9 sittings, about 22 minutes each.

What do I need on the kit?

crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, high tom, 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 Mr. Blue Sky?

3 fills to learn, played 5 times: bars 8, 54, 104, 160 and 162.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 180 BARS ANALYSED
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