ABOUT THIS DRUM PART

How to play Abstract Art on drums

112 bars at 185 BPM -- fast, and 2:31 of it without a break -- on crash, ride, snare, mid tom, floor tom and kick.

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

TEMPO: 185 BPM
TIME: 4/4
BARS: 112
LENGTH: 2:31
DIFFICULTY: 67/100

ride through bars 1-8, snare through bars 9-86, ride through bars 87-96, snare through bars 97-108 and silence through bars 109-112.

The beat

The beat the song is built on is a 2-bar phrase, played through bars 29-31, 33-35 and 37-39, and 3 more places -- 13.3% of every bar the kit plays. This one moves around more than most: the beat is where to start, not the whole job.

    29                                               30
    1...........2...........3...........4........... 1...........2...........3...........4...........
CC |x-----------x-----------x-----------x-----------|x-----------x-----------x-----------x-----x-----|
SD |------------------------x-----------------------|------------------------x-----------------------|
BD |x-----x-----------x-----x-----------x-----x-----|------x-----x-----------x-----x-----------x-----|

Abstract Art -- the groove · x hit · o open hi-hat · g ghost note · r cross-stick · X accent

The fills

5 fills to learn, played 6 times: bars 1, 2, 6, 36, 51 and 104.

What the course does

It cuts the song into 50 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.

The grooves the song is built on -- U -- 3 exercises, about 21 minutes.
The grooves the song is built on -- AI, AM -- 2 exercises, about 30 minutes.
Through Part C -- 3 exercises, about 26 minutes.
Through Part C and the Break -- 5 exercises, about 22 minutes.
Through Part K -- 2 exercises, about 28 minutes.
Through Part K -- 3 exercises, about 29 minutes. Open above.
Through Part R -- 1 exercise, about 14 minutes.
Through Part K and Part R -- 3 exercises, about 27 minutes.
and 12 more sittings after that.

START THE COURSE ↑

Questions

What BPM is Abstract Art?

185 BPM, in 4/4, with the time kept in thirty-second notes. At that speed the thirty-second notes are the whole difficulty, so the room will take it down to a quarter of it and climb back.

Is Abstract Art hard to play on drums?

67 out of 100: demanding, mostly on the independence between the hands and the feet. The beat itself is 45 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

112 bars, about 2:31 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 50 exercises over 20 sittings, about 24 minutes each.

What do I need on the kit?

crash, ride, 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 Abstract Art?

5 fills to learn, played 6 times: bars 1, 2, 6, 36, 51 and 104.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 112 BARS ANALYSED