We Didn't Start The Fire · Billy Joel

159 bars of 4/4 at 146 BPM, about 4:21 of playing, on crash, hi-hat, snare, high tom, mid tom and kick.

PopRock120 to 149 BPMBeginner
TEMPO
146 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
159
LENGTH
4:21
DIFFICULTY
57/100
THE BEAT

One bar, and 43% of the song

The beat the song is built on is one bar, played through bars 10-12, 14-16 and 18-20, and 24 more places -- 42.9% of every bar the kit plays. Learn that one and most of the song is already under your hands.

LOOP · 146 BPM
WE DIDN'T START THE FIRE · BAR 11
THE BEAT, WRITTEN OUT →
THE FILLS

Where it comes off the beat

1 fill to learn, played 4 times: bars 145, 151, 153 and 159.

LOOP · 146 BPM
BAR 145 · LANDS ON BAR 146 · PLAYED 4 TIMES
EVERY FILL, WRITTEN OUT →
THE SHAPE

How the song is built

159 bars across 12 sections: 140 keep time, 4 are fills and 5 are silent. The longest unbroken stretch of time is bars 38-77.

PART B
CHORUS
CHORUS 2
PART B
CHORUS 3
6 groovesDBCAS2+1Fill into the next barFill that ends a sectionInto the next partStop / hitRest

Questions

What BPM is We Didn't Start The Fire?

146 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 We Didn't Start The Fire hard to play on drums?

57 out of 100, a step up from a first song, and the work is in the independence between the hands and the feet. The beat itself is 34 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

159 bars, about 4:21 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 14 exercises over 4 sittings, about 26 minutes each.

What do I need on the kit?

crash, hi-hat, snare, high tom, mid tom and kick. That is most of a full kit; the part moves around it rather than sitting in one place.

How many fills are in We Didn't Start The Fire?

1 fill to learn, played 4 times: bars 145, 151, 153 and 159.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 159 BARS ANALYSED
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