#BULLET THE BLUE SKY DRUMS HOW TO#
#BULLET THE BLUE SKY DRUMS PLUS#

If you want to take these patterns a step further and play just like Larry Mullen Jr., set up an extra snare and floor tom on your left side, add some timbales to the kit, perfect your alternating single strokes, keep your right hand busy, and have your drum parts complement the other instruments perfectly.The Top 350+ Best & Greatest Drum Fills, Licks & Solos ever recorded. It’s a simple snare-bass pattern with a washy crash that locks in perfectly with the other instruments, which helps to make this groove musical.

This is the chorus of one of U2’s biggest hits of the early 2000s. This groove has some unexpected hi-hat offbeats and tasty hi-hat openings.

Pride (In The Name Of Love)īring your right hand down on the snare drum to play the back beat, and use your left hand on the left side floor tom so you don’t have to cross over. You’ll notice Mullen playing that alternating single stroke pattern through the groove again as he moves from rack tom to timbale and includes some crossovers between his side snare and main snare.

#BULLET THE BLUE SKY DRUMS HOW TO#

There isn’t much out there on how to play “A Sort Of Homecoming” on drums, so we had to include this one! Mullen used timbales and a side snare on his kit in the early 80s, so to do this part justice you should try to emulate his kit setup. It sounds different from anything else on the record, and it’s a cool pattern that combines an 8th note pattern on the hi-hats (with open hats here and there) and rim shots on the snare drum. Bullet The Blue SkyĪfter Mullen recorded this track in the studio, producers set up a PA in a warehouse, played the drum recording through it, and captured a boomy track that could rival John Bonham‘s sound. If you want to play this authentically, make sure you’re doing most of the work with that right hand. Mullen only added in the left hand during 16th note rhythms. Here’s something you don’t see very often: a right-handed drummer playing a groove on a left side floor tom and not filling in with the left hand when the right moves over to the snare.

And in following a common trend with his drumming, you’ll again find alternating single strokes on the hands – fitting for a former marching drummer. In this song, Mullen uses a side snare with the snares off. Mullen says it was tough to get the drums sitting right in the studio, and that it became a truly great part only by playing it live.

The Joshua Tree was the album that catapulted U2 to massive commercial success. It’s one of the most famous U2 songs, one of the most recognizable drum beats of all time, and Larry Mullen Jr.’s most well known groove.Īfter the 16th note pickup, the entire groove is based on alternating single strokes on the hands and a quarter note kick keeping the pulse. In this 10 minute video, we break down some of the U2 drummer’s most famous parts – some of which you won’t find anywhere else on the internet. You might even say he… elevated the band. so great? Not only was he making decisions on the drums in the 70s and 80s that were surprising for the era, but he’s always made decisions that make musical sense.

#BULLET THE BLUE SKY DRUMS PLUS#

Nearly 200 million album sales later – plus pop culture immortality with features on The Simpsons and Friends – this drummer has seen successes the rest of us can only dream about. How many drummers can say they’ve been in a band for 50 years? For U2’s Larry Mullen Jr., it’s been almost that long.

Bullet the blue sky drums