← SONGS

On Fire · Van Halen

EXERCISE 14 OF 48
Join Part G to Part K (bars 32-34)
80 / 134 BARS COVERED
0 / 48 PASSED · 3 BARS LIT · IN THE PART G, PART K
CHORUS
PART B
PART G
PART K
PART N
PART Q
PART S
CHORUS 3
CHORUS 4
OUTRO
OUTRO 2
7 groovesCNKSB+2Fill into the next barFill that ends a sectionInto the next partStop / hitRest
GROOVE · 11
FILL · 6
LAND · 6
RUN · 1
JOIN · 10
LINK · 7
SECTION · 6
WHOLE SONG · 1
ABOUT THIS DRUM PART

How to play On Fire on drums

134 bars at 184 BPM -- fast, and 2:55 of it without a break -- on crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, mid tom, floor tom, kick and hi-hat foot.

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

TEMPO
184 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
134
LENGTH
2:55
DIFFICULTY
54/100

kick and crashes through bars 1-2, hi-hat through bars 3-4, kick and crashes through bars 5-6, hi-hat through bars 7-36, ride through bars 37-53 and toms through bars 54-60, and 4 more changes after that.

The beat

The beat the song is built on is one bar, played through bars 3, 7 and 9, and 19 more places -- 16.4% of every bar the kit plays. This one moves around more than most: the beat is where to start, not the whole job.

    3
    1e+a2e+a3e+a4e+a
HH |x---x---x---x---|
SD |----x-------x---|
BD |x-------x-x-----|
On Fire -- the groove · x hit · o open hi-hat · g ghost note · r cross-stick · X accent

The fills

6 fills to learn, played 12 times: bars 44, 74, 76, 80, 84, 86 and 6 more.

What the course does

It cuts the song into 41 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 -- B, O -- 2 exercises, about 24 minutes.
  2. The grooves the song is built on -- K -- 2 exercises, about 27 minutes.
  3. Bars 4-28 -- 4 exercises, about 28 minutes.
  4. Bars 18-30 -- 5 exercises, about 34 minutes.
  5. Through Part G and Part K -- 6 exercises, about 29 minutes. Open above.
  6. Through Part N and Part Q -- 3 exercises, about 21 minutes.
  7. Through Part Q and Part S -- 2 exercises, about 19 minutes.
  8. Through Part S -- 3 exercises, about 33 minutes.
  9. and 3 more sittings after that.
START THE COURSE ↑

Questions

What BPM is On Fire?

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

Is On Fire hard to play on drums?

54 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 43 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

134 bars, about 2:55 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 41 exercises over 11 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 On Fire?

6 fills to learn, played 12 times: bars 44, 74, 76, 80, 84, 86 and 6 more.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 134 BARS ANALYSED