← SONGS

Wanna Be Startin' Somethin' · Michael Jackson

EXERCISE 1 OF 16
Groove B -- Chorus
0 / 185 BARS COVERED
0 / 16 PASSED · 164 BARS LIT · IN THE CHORUS, OUTRO 2
CHORUS
OUTRO
OUTRO 2
4 groovesBFES1Fill into the next barFill that ends a sectionInto the next partStop / hitRest
GROOVE · 4
FILL · 1
LAND · 1
RUN · 2
JOIN · 3
LINK · 1
SECTION · 3
WHOLE SONG · 1
ABOUT THIS DRUM PART

How to play Wanna Be Startin' Somethin' on drums

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

33 out of 100 -- a fair first song -- with how much of it falls off the beat the part that decides it.

TEMPO
122 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
185
LENGTH
6:04
DIFFICULTY
33/100

kick and crashes through bars 2-17, snare through bars 18-25, kick and crashes through bars 26-37, snare through bars 38-45, kick and crashes through bars 46-49 and toms through bars 50-51, and 8 more changes after that.

The beat

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.

    2
    1e+a2e+a3e+a4e+a
CC |xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx|
Wanna Be Startin' Somethin' -- the groove · x hit · o open hi-hat · g ghost note · r cross-stick · X accent

The fills

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

What the course does

It cuts the song into 14 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 -- 3 exercises, about 27 minutes.
  2. Through the Chorus and Part E -- 5 exercises, about 27 minutes.
  3. Through Part E and the Outro -- 4 exercises, about 28 minutes.
  4. The whole song -- 4 exercises, about 24 minutes.
START THE COURSE ↑

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