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Thriller · Fall Out Boy

EXERCISE 12 OF 40
Groove B -- Part B
35 / 75 BARS COVERED
0 / 40 PASSED · 4 BARS LIT · IN THE PART B, BREAK
COUNT-IN
PART B
PART S3
PART D
CHORUS
PART K
PART M
PART D
CHORUS 2
OUTRO
BREAK
8 groovesHDS10MS1+3Fill into the next barFill that ends a sectionInto the next partStop / hitRest
GROOVE · 5
FILL · 10
LAND · 10
RUN · 2
JOIN · 6
LINK · 1
SECTION · 5
WHOLE SONG · 1
ABOUT THIS DRUM PART

How to play Thriller on drums

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.

81 out of 100. Hard, and what makes it hard is the independence between the hands and the feet.

TEMPO
88 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
75
LENGTH
3:25
DIFFICULTY
81/100

silence through bars 1-7, snare through bars 8-12, silence through bars 13-19, ride through bars 20-35, snare through bars 36-39 and ride through bars 40-65, and 3 more changes after that.

The beat

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.

    28                               29
    1.......2.......3.......4....... 1.......2.......3.......4.......
CC |x---x---x---x---x---x---x---x---|x---x---x---x---x---x-----------|
SD |--------x---------------x-----x-|--------x---------------x-------|
T1 |--------------------------------|----------------------------x---|
FT |--------------------------------|----------------------------x---|
BD |x-x---x---x-----x-x---x---x-----|x-x---x---x-----x-x---x---x---x-|
Thriller -- the groove · x hit · o open hi-hat · g ghost note · r cross-stick · X accent

The fills

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

What the course does

It cuts the song into 29 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 -- H -- 6 exercises, about 37 minutes.
  2. The grooves the song is built on -- D -- 4 exercises, about 31 minutes.
  3. The grooves the song is built on -- M -- 1 exercise, about 19 minutes.
  4. Through Part B and Part S3 -- 4 exercises, about 26 minutes. Open above.
  5. Bars 10-36 -- 4 exercises, about 29 minutes.
  6. Bars 34-48 -- 6 exercises, about 27 minutes.
  7. Bars 46-56 -- 6 exercises, about 26 minutes.
  8. Bars 52-74 -- 7 exercises, about 30 minutes.
  9. and 1 more sittings after that.
START THE COURSE ↑

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