Groove 'n' Fill lesson
Billie Jean drum play-along lesson
Learn the Billie Jean drum beat, then put fills into it: one-beat fills first, then two-beat fills. Press play, watch the kit, and hit the drum that lights up.
Space bar plays and stops. Click a drum to play it. Click the staff to add or remove a note.
How the lesson is built
83 bars in two parts, about 3:44 at 90 BPM. Each fill lands on the last beat or two of every third bar, and a crash marks the 1 that follows.
| Section | What you play |
|---|---|
| Part 1 | 10 bars of the beat, one full-bar fill, then 10 rounds of two groove bars and a bar with a one-beat fill on beat 4 |
| Part 2 | The same, with two-beat fills on beats 3 and 4 |
| Fills | Level up as you go: snare only, snare to tom, down the toms, then around the kit |
| Finish | One last crash with the kick |
The Billie Jean beat
Hi-hat on every eighth note with your right hand, kick on 1 and 3, snare on 2 and 4 with your left hand. Here it is as a limb tab, one row per limb:
Count 1 & 2 & 3 & 4 & R R R R R R R R R right hand: hi-hat L L L left hand: snare K K K kick
How to practise it
- Start at 90 BPM, or slower if the fills feel rushed.
- Count out loud through each fill: “4 e & a” for a one-beat fill.
- Land the crash and kick together on the 1 after every fill.
- When every fill is clean, raise the tempo 5 to 10 BPM at a time toward the record's speed, about 117 BPM.
About this lesson
Billie Jean is a song by Michael Jackson. This lesson teaches its drum beat only, played with synthesised drum sounds; it does not include the original recording.