Thriller · Fall Out Boy

75 bars of 4/4 at a walking 88 BPM, 3:25 of playing, on crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, high tom, mid tom, floor tom, kick and hi-hat foot.

Alternative / IndiePunkUnder 90 BPM
TEMPO
88 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
75
LENGTH
3:25
DIFFICULTY
81/100
THE BEAT

One bar, and 21% of the song

The beat the song is built on is a 2-bar phrase, played through bars 28-30, 32-34 and 56-58, and 1 more place -- 20.7% of every bar the kit plays. This one moves around more than most: the beat is where to start, not the whole job.

LOOP · 88 BPM
THRILLER · BARS 28-29
THE BEAT, WRITTEN OUT →
THE FILLS

Where it comes off the beat

10 fills to learn, played 20 times: bars 11, 23, 27, 29, 31, 33 and 14 more.

LOOP · 88 BPM
BAR 11 · LANDS ON BAR 12 · PLAYED 3 TIMES
LOOP · 88 BPM
BAR 23 · LANDS ON BAR 24
LOOP · 88 BPM
BAR 27 · LANDS ON BAR 28
LOOP · 88 BPM
BAR 29 · LANDS ON BAR 30 · PLAYED 4 TIMES

6 more fills are written out on the fills page.

EVERY FILL, WRITTEN OUT →
THE SHAPE

How the song is built

75 bars across 11 sections: 25 keep time, 20 are fills, 5 are stops and 17 are silent. The longest unbroken stretch of time is bars 42-46.

COUNT-IN
PART B
PART S3
PART D
CHORUS
PART K
PART M
PART D
CHORUS 2
OUTRO
8 groovesHDS10MS1+3Fill into the next barFill that ends a sectionInto the next partStop / hitRest

Questions

What BPM is Thriller?

88 BPM, in 4/4, with the time kept in thirty-second 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 Thriller hard to play on drums?

81 out of 100. Hard, and what makes it hard is the independence between the hands and the feet. The beat itself is 64 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

75 bars, about 3:25 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 29 exercises over 9 sittings, about 27 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 Thriller?

10 fills to learn, played 20 times: bars 11, 23, 27, 29, 31, 33 and 14 more.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 75 BARS ANALYSED
MORE BY THIS BAND

Other Fall Out Boy drum parts

EVERY FALL OUT BOY CHART →
AT THIS LEVEL

Play something else today

EVERY SONG A-Z →