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Always · Bon Jovi

EXERCISE 26 OF 62
Run P1 · Part P (bars 33-41)
63 / 101 BARS COVERED
0 / 62 PASSED · 9 BARS LIT · IN THE PART P
PART F
PART S3
PART M
PART P
CHORUS 2
PART Z
PART AC
OUTRO
OUTRO 2
9 groovesBFACANP+4Fill into the next barFill that ends a sectionInto the next partStop / hitRest
GROOVE · 12
FILL · 13
LAND · 13
RUN · 1
JOIN · 9
LINK · 5
SECTION · 8
WHOLE SONG · 1
ABOUT THIS DRUM PART

How to play Always on drums

101 bars, 5:37, 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.

46 out of 100, a step up from a first song, and the work is in how often it moves around the kit.

TEMPO
72 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
101
LENGTH
5:37
DIFFICULTY
46/100

toms through bar 1, ride through bars 2-4, snare through bars 5-19, silence through bars 20-22, hi-hat through bars 23-26 and ride through bars 27-32, and 5 more changes after that.

The beat

The beat the song is built on is one bar, played through bars 2, 45-47 and 49-50, and 4 more places -- 14.4% of every bar the kit plays. This one moves around more than most: the beat is where to start, not the whole job.

    45
    1e+a2e+a3e+a4e+a
CC |x---------------|
RD |--x-x-x-xxx-x-x-|
SD |----x-------x---|
BD |x-------x-------|
Always -- the groove · x hit · o open hi-hat · g ghost note · r cross-stick · X accent

The fills

13 fills to learn, played 27 times: bars 1, 3, 16, 17, 18, 23 and 21 more.

What the course does

It cuts the song into 48 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 -- B, F -- 4 exercises, about 22 minutes.
  2. The grooves the song is built on -- Z -- 5 exercises, about 27 minutes.
  3. Bars 6-27 -- 5 exercises, about 27 minutes.
  4. Bars 19-33 -- 5 exercises, about 29 minutes.
  5. Through Part M and Part P -- 6 exercises, about 31 minutes.
  6. Through Part P and the Chorus 2 -- 4 exercises, about 26 minutes. Open above.
  7. Through the Chorus 2 and Part Z -- 3 exercises, about 22 minutes.
  8. Through Part Z and Part AC -- 5 exercises, about 29 minutes.
  9. and 5 more sittings after that.
START THE COURSE ↑

Questions

What BPM is Always?

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 Always hard to play on drums?

46 out of 100, a step up from a first song, and the work is in how often it moves around the kit. The beat itself is 24 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

101 bars, about 5:37 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 48 exercises over 13 sittings, about 25 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 Always?

13 fills to learn, played 27 times: bars 1, 3, 16, 17, 18, 23 and 21 more.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 101 BARS ANALYSED