A Whiter Shade Of Pale · Procol Harum

85 bars, 4:32, at 75 BPM: slow enough that every note is exposed. Crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, high tom, mid tom, floor tom and kick and nothing else.

RockPopUnder 90 BPMBeginner
TEMPO
75 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
85
LENGTH
4:32
DIFFICULTY
43/100
THE BEAT

One bar, and 59% of the song

The beat the song is built on is one bar, played through bars 1, 3 and 5-7, and 29 more places -- 58.8% of every bar the kit plays. Learn that one and most of the song is already under your hands.

LOOP · 75 BPM
A WHITER SHADE OF PALE · BAR 1
THE BEAT, WRITTEN OUT →
THE FILLS

Where it comes off the beat

7 fills to learn, played 16 times: bars 8, 14, 24, 28, 32, 40 and 10 more.

LOOP · 75 BPM
BAR 8 · LANDS ON BAR 9 · PLAYED 2 TIMES
LOOP · 75 BPM
BAR 14 · LANDS ON BAR 15 · PLAYED 4 TIMES
LOOP · 75 BPM
BAR 24 · LANDS ON BAR 25 · PLAYED 3 TIMES
LOOP · 75 BPM
BAR 28 · LANDS ON BAR 29 · PLAYED 3 TIMES

3 more fills are written out on the fills page.

EVERY FILL, WRITTEN OUT →
THE SHAPE

How the song is built

85 bars: 67 keep time, 16 are fills and 2 are stops. The longest unbroken stretch of time is bars 15-23.

OUTRO
1 grooveAFill into the next barFill that ends a sectionInto the next partStop / hitRest

Questions

What BPM is A Whiter Shade Of Pale?

75 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 Whiter Shade Of Pale hard to play on drums?

43 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 23 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

85 bars, about 4:32 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 13 exercises over 4 sittings, about 26 minutes each.

What do I need on the kit?

crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, high tom, 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 Whiter Shade Of Pale?

7 fills to learn, played 16 times: bars 8, 14, 24, 28, 32, 40 and 10 more.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 85 BARS ANALYSED
AT THIS LEVEL

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