Difficulty Level In this free drum lesson I’ll be showing you another extract from my eBook teaching the classic intro drum beat from the song “Fire” by Jimi Hendrix.

“Fire” Drum Beat Demonstration

View the video on YouTube HERE – Learn How To Play Drums Song Fire Video Drum Beat Lesson (Jimi Hendrix & Mitch Mitchell)

Why The “Fire” Drum Beat Is So Great

Fusing elements of jazz and rock, Mitchell plays manic and spirited improvised four-bar phrases, creating a dialogue between his kick/snare and Hendrix’s guitar and vocals.

How To Play It

This is the first 11 bars played after the initial drum fill intro.

Mitch varies the hi-hat by playing on some of the ‘+’s of the beat. This transcription has only included the quarter notes on the hi-hat for ease of reading. This way, the hi-hats can be used as reference points in relation to where the majority of the bass and snare drums fall (either on or in between the hi-hats).

Bars 3, 4 and 10 include some ghost notes played with the left hand, in between the hi-hat’s. These fill out the groove but can be omitted if they prove to be too much of a coordination issue for your left hand.

Bars 7 and 8 use a classic snare drum pattern, falling on the ‘a’ and ‘e’ of various beats of the bar. If you’re finding this tricky then try playing with eighth notes on the hi-hat instead. Then it’s just a case of playing the snare drum either with the hi-hat (beats 2 and 4) or in between (the ‘e’ and ‘a’).

The sixteenth note triplets, starting on the ‘+’ of beat 4 at the end of the tenth bar, can be played with any hand. The sticking RLRL is recommended though. Mitch really gives the drums hell on this track, some fiery drumming indeed!

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Free Drum Lesson: “Fire” Famous Verse Drum Beat (Mitch Mitchell: Jimi Hendrix)