A Long December · Counting Crows

83 bars, 4:37, at 72 BPM: slow enough that every note is exposed. Crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, mid tom, floor tom and kick and nothing else.

Alternative / IndiePopUnder 90 BPM
TEMPO
72 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
83
LENGTH
4:37
DIFFICULTY
40/100
THE BEAT

One bar, and 33% of the song

The beat the song is built on is one bar, played through bars 5-12, 17 and 25-30, and 1 more place -- 33.3% of every bar the kit plays. That is the spine of it; everything else is what happens around it.

LOOP · 72 BPM
A LONG DECEMBER · BAR 5
THE BEAT, WRITTEN OUT →
THE FILLS

Where it comes off the beat

8 fills to learn, played 9 times: bars 14, 16, 18, 22, 40, 44 and 3 more.

LOOP · 72 BPM
BAR 14 · LANDS ON BAR 15
LOOP · 72 BPM
BAR 16 · LANDS ON BAR 17 · PLAYED 2 TIMES
LOOP · 72 BPM
BAR 18 · LANDS ON BAR 19
LOOP · 72 BPM
BAR 22 · LANDS ON BAR 23

4 more fills are written out on the fills page.

EVERY FILL, WRITTEN OUT →
THE SHAPE

How the song is built

83 bars across 9 sections: 52 keep time, 9 are fills, 2 are stops and 11 are silent. The longest unbroken stretch of time is bars 45-58.

CHORUS
PART C
CHORUS 2
PART C
CHORUS 3
PART S7
OUTRO
5 groovesBCS7GS1Fill into the next barFill that ends a sectionInto the next partStop / hitRest

Questions

What BPM is A Long December?

72 BPM, in 4/4, with the time kept in sixteenth notes. Slow enough to hear every mistake, which is why the room lets you sit at the written tempo rather than under it.

Is A Long December hard to play on drums?

40 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 20 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

83 bars, about 4:37 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 23 exercises over 6 sittings, about 26 minutes each.

What do I need on the kit?

crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, mid tom, floor tom and kick. That is most of a full kit; the part moves around it rather than sitting in one place.

How many fills are in A Long December?

8 fills to learn, played 9 times: bars 14, 16, 18, 22, 40, 44 and 3 more.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 83 BARS ANALYSED
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