Wanna Be Startin' Somethin' · Michael Jackson

185 bars of 4/4 at 122 BPM, about 6:04 of playing, on crash, hi-hat, snare, mid tom and floor tom.

Funk / SoulElectronic120 to 149 BPMBeginner
TEMPO
122 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
185
LENGTH
6:04
DIFFICULTY
33/100
THE BEAT

One bar, and 89% of the song

The beat the song is built on is one bar, played through bars 2-73, 77-108 and 110-157, and 1 more place -- 89.1% of every bar the kit plays. Learn that one and the song is very nearly finished.

LOOP · 122 BPM
WANNA BE STARTIN' SOMETHIN' · BAR 2
THE BEAT, WRITTEN OUT →
THE FILLS

Where it comes off the beat

1 fill to learn, played 1 time: bar 109.

LOOP · 122 BPM
BAR 109 · LANDS ON BAR 110
EVERY FILL, WRITTEN OUT →
THE SHAPE

How the song is built

185 bars across 5 sections: 179 keep time, 1 is a fill and 1 is silent. The longest unbroken stretch of time is bars 2-108.

CHORUS
OUTRO
OUTRO 2
4 groovesBFES1Fill into the next barFill that ends a sectionInto the next partStop / hitRest

Questions

What BPM is Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'?

122 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 Wanna Be Startin' Somethin' hard to play on drums?

33 out of 100 -- a fair first song -- with how much of it falls off the beat the part that decides it. The beat itself is 16 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

185 bars, about 6:04 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 14 exercises over 4 sittings, about 27 minutes each.

What do I need on the kit?

crash, hi-hat, snare, mid tom and floor tom. Nothing in the part asks for anything else.

How many fills are in Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'?

1 fill to learn, played 1 time: bar 109.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 185 BARS ANALYSED
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