← SONGS

A Boy Named Sue · Johnny Cash

EXERCISE 1 OF 6
Groove A -- Chorus
0 / 91 BARS COVERED
0 / 6 PASSED · 88 BARS LIT · IN THE CHORUS, OUTRO
CHORUS
OUTRO
2 groovesAS2Fill into the next barFill that ends a sectionInto the next partStop / hitRest
GROOVE · 2
RUN · 1
JOIN · 1
SECTION · 1
WHOLE SONG · 1
ABOUT THIS DRUM PART

How to play A Boy Named Sue on drums

91 bars of 4/4 at a walking 107 BPM, 3:21 of playing, on snare, kick and hi-hat foot.

42 out of 100 -- a fair first song -- with the independence between the hands and the feet the part that decides it.

TEMPO
107 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
91
LENGTH
3:21
DIFFICULTY
42/100

The time is kept on the snare the whole way through.

The beat

The beat the song is built on is one bar, played through bars 1-10, 12-72 and 74-86, and 1 more place -- 97.8% of every bar the kit plays. Learn that one and the song is very nearly finished.

    1
    1e+a2e+a3e+a4e+a
SD |--x---x---x---xx|
BD |x---x---x---x---|
HF |---x--x----x--xx|
A Boy Named Sue -- the groove · x hit · o open hi-hat · g ghost note · r cross-stick · X accent

The fills

There are no fills to speak of: the part holds one beat the whole way through.

What the course does

It cuts the song into 5 exercises -- the grooves, the fills, and the joins between sections, which is where players actually come off -- and puts them in the order a teacher would. Each one opens on a reduction you can already play and adds the notes back a rung at a time, with a tempo to reach and a gate to pass before the next.

  1. The grooves the song is built on -- A -- 3 exercises, about 21 minutes. Open above.
  2. The whole song -- 3 exercises, about 26 minutes.
START THE COURSE ↑

Questions

What BPM is A Boy Named Sue?

107 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 A Boy Named Sue hard to play on drums?

42 out of 100 -- a fair first song -- with the independence between the hands and the feet the part that decides it. The beat itself is 32 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

91 bars, about 3:21 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 5 exercises over 2 sittings, about 24 minutes each.

What do I need on the kit?

snare, kick and hi-hat foot. Three pieces and no more -- this one is playable on almost anything with a kick, a snare and something to keep time on.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 91 BARS ANALYSED