Drum beat in the style of “Bad Guy” — Billie Eilish

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Billie Eilish’s 2019 song is famously minimal — a pulsing kick with snaps on top. On the kit, keep it sparse and punchy.

Tempo
135 BPM
Time signature
4/4
Groove
four-on-the-floor beat
Genre
Pop
Difficulty
Easy
Loop
4 bars

Drum pattern

Main groove × 3
Open hi-hat
Snare
Kick
Fill × 1
Open hi-hat
Snare
Kick

Each row is one drum, each column one step. Large dots are accents, small dots normal hits, faint dots ghost notes.

Who plays what: notes per bar

Cymbal hand4
Snare hand2
Kick foot4
Kick notes without a cymbal4

The tricky spot is the 4 kick notes that fall between cymbal strokes — practice hand and foot on their own there before playing the whole groove.

About this groove

At about 135 BPM it has an up-tempo feel: one beat lasts 444 ms and a 4/4 bar takes 1.8 seconds. Use the tempo buttons to slow it down while you learn.

Practice plan

BPM

Learn At 135 BPM, “Bad Guy” is faster than 75% of the 150 songs in our catalogue. See all song tempos →

96 193 BPM Bad Guy · 135
Tempo among our pop songs

Step-by-step breakdown of the four-on-the-floor beat →

How it differs from similar beats

Compared with “Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)” (Eurythmics, pop beat with a four-on-the-floor kick), this groove plays off-beat 8ths on the cymbal instead of straight 8ths — and it runs 9 BPM faster. If you can already play that one, this is your next step. Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This) →

“Atemlos durch die Nacht” (Helene Fischer) uses exactly the same simplified pattern, 7 BPM slower — a good warm-up before this one. Atemlos durch die Nacht →

Other songs with the same four-on-the-floor beat

Similar drum beats

This is a simplified rhythm pattern in the style of “Bad Guy” by Billie Eilish, written for drum practice. It is not a transcription of the recording and contains no audio, lyrics or artwork. Drums3D is not affiliated with Billie Eilish.