Smooth Criminal · Alien Ant Farm

109 bars of 4/4 at 126 BPM, about 3:26 of playing, on crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, high tom, mid tom, floor tom, kick and hi-hat foot.

MetalPunk120 to 149 BPM
TEMPO
126 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
109
LENGTH
3:26
DIFFICULTY
76/100
THE BEAT

One bar, and 20% of the song

The beat the song is built on is a 2-bar phrase, played through bars 18-23, 34-39 and 50-55, and 2 more places -- 20.2% of every bar the kit plays. This one moves around more than most: the beat is where to start, not the whole job.

LOOP · 126 BPM
SMOOTH CRIMINAL · BARS 18-19
THE BEAT, WRITTEN OUT →
THE FILLS

Where it comes off the beat

3 fills to learn, played 4 times: bars 24, 56, 100 and 109.

LOOP · 126 BPM
BAR 24 · LANDS ON BAR 25 · PLAYED 2 TIMES
LOOP · 126 BPM
BAR 100 · LANDS ON BAR 101
LOOP · 126 BPM
BAR 109
EVERY FILL, WRITTEN OUT →
THE SHAPE

How the song is built

109 bars across 10 sections: 90 keep time and 4 are fills. The longest unbroken stretch of time is bars 35-55.

PART D
CHORUS
PART N
CHORUS 2
PART N
CHORUS 3
OUTRO
OUTRO 2
6 groovesINDBAA+1Fill into the next barFill that ends a sectionInto the next partStop / hitRest

Questions

What BPM is Smooth Criminal?

126 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 Smooth Criminal hard to play on drums?

76 out of 100: demanding, mostly on the independence between the hands and the feet. The beat itself is 51 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

109 bars, about 3:26 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 34 exercises over 15 sittings, about 22 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 Smooth Criminal?

3 fills to learn, played 4 times: bars 24, 56, 100 and 109.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 109 BARS ANALYSED
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