Alabama · Neil Young with The Stray Gators

72 bars, 3:50, at 75 BPM: slow enough that every note is exposed. Crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, mid tom and kick and nothing else.

Under 90 BPM
TEMPO
75 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
72
LENGTH
3:50
DIFFICULTY
44/100
THE BEAT

One bar, and 35% of the song

The beat the song is built on is one bar, played through bars 13-15, 17-18 and 22, and 8 more places -- 34.8% of every bar the kit plays. That is the spine of it; everything else is what happens around it.

LOOP · 75 BPM
ALABAMA · BAR 13
THE BEAT, WRITTEN OUT →
THE FILLS

Where it comes off the beat

7 fills to learn, played 14 times: bars 16, 19, 20, 23, 34, 38 and 8 more.

LOOP · 75 BPM
BAR 16 · LANDS ON BAR 17 · PLAYED 2 TIMES
LOOP · 75 BPM
BARS 19-20 · LANDS ON BAR 21 · PLAYED 4 TIMES
LOOP · 75 BPM
BAR 23 · LANDS ON BAR 24 · PLAYED 2 TIMES
LOOP · 75 BPM
BAR 34 · LANDS ON BAR 35 · PLAYED 2 TIMES

3 more fills are written out on the fills page.

EVERY FILL, WRITTEN OUT →
THE SHAPE

How the song is built

72 bars across 8 sections: 40 keep time, 14 are fills, 3 are stops and 3 are silent. The longest unbroken stretch of time is bars 5-11.

PART C
CHORUS
PART C
CHORUS 2
PART M
OUTRO
OUTRO 2
4 groovesECMS1Fill into the next barFill that ends a sectionInto the next partStop / hitRest

Questions

What BPM is Alabama?

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 Alabama hard to play on drums?

44 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 26 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

72 bars, about 3:50 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 25 exercises over 6 sittings, about 28 minutes each.

What do I need on the kit?

crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, mid 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 Alabama?

7 fills to learn, played 14 times: bars 16, 19, 20, 23, 34, 38 and 8 more.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 72 BARS ANALYSED
AT THIS LEVEL

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