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A National Acrobat · Black Sabbath

EXERCISE 9 OF 44
Groove H
83 / 127 BARS COVERED
0 / 44 PASSED · 3 BARS LIT · IN THE PART A, CHORUS
PART A
CHORUS
PART T
OUTRO
OUTRO 2
5 groovesIAAETABFill into the next barFill that ends a sectionInto the next partStop / hitRest
GROOVE · 6
FILL · 12
LAND · 12
RUN · 1
JOIN · 4
LINK · 4
SECTION · 4
WHOLE SONG · 1
ABOUT THIS DRUM PART

How to play A National Acrobat on drums

127 bars, 7:03, at 72 BPM: slow enough that every note is exposed. Crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, high tom, mid tom, floor tom, kick and hi-hat foot and nothing else.

67 out of 100: demanding, mostly on the independence between the hands and the feet.

TEMPO
72 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
127
LENGTH
7:03
DIFFICULTY
67/100

hi-hat through bars 1-16, ride through bars 17-18, hi-hat through bars 19-20, ride through bars 21-22, hi-hat through bars 23-90 and snare through bars 91-127.

The beat

The beat the song is built on is one bar, played through bars 42, 44-53 and 55-64, and 4 more places -- 28.3% of every bar the kit plays. That is the spine of it; everything else is what happens around it.

    47
    1...........2...........3...........4...........
CC |x-----------------------------------------------|
HH |------x-----x-----x-----x-----x-----x-----x-----|
SD |------------------x-----------------x-----------|
BD |x--------x--------------------x--------x-----x--|
A National Acrobat -- the groove · x hit · o open hi-hat · g ghost note · r cross-stick · X accent

The fills

12 fills to learn, played 32 times: bars 9, 10, 13, 14, 17, 18 and 26 more.

What the course does

It cuts the song into 31 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 -- I, A -- 3 exercises, about 35 minutes.
  2. The grooves the song is built on -- AB -- 5 exercises, about 31 minutes.
  3. Through Part A and the Chorus -- 4 exercises, about 30 minutes. Open above.
  4. Through the Chorus -- 7 exercises, about 27 minutes.
  5. Through the Chorus and Part T -- 5 exercises, about 33 minutes.
  6. Through Part T -- 9 exercises, about 28 minutes.
  7. Bars 101-117 -- 5 exercises, about 31 minutes.
  8. Through the Outro and the Outro 2 -- 5 exercises, about 21 minutes.
  9. and 1 more sittings after that.
START THE COURSE ↑

Questions

What BPM is A National Acrobat?

72 BPM, in 4/4, with the time kept in thirty-second 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 National Acrobat hard to play on drums?

67 out of 100: demanding, mostly on the independence between the hands and the feet. The beat itself is 53 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

127 bars, about 7:03 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 31 exercises over 9 sittings, about 27 minutes each.

What do I need on the kit?

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

How many fills are in A National Acrobat?

12 fills to learn, played 32 times: bars 9, 10, 13, 14, 17, 18 and 26 more.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 127 BARS ANALYSED