American Boy · Estelle Ft. Kanye West

135 bars of 4/4 at 118 BPM, about 4:35 of playing, on hi-hat, snare and kick.

Funk / SoulHip Hop / Reggae90 to 119 BPMFour drums or fewer
TEMPO
118 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
135
LENGTH
4:35
DIFFICULTY
39/100
THE BEAT

One bar, and 80% of the song

The beat the song is built on is one bar, played through bars 5-11, 13-19 and 29-34, and 9 more places -- 79.7% of every bar the kit plays. Learn that one and the song is very nearly finished.

LOOP · 118 BPM
AMERICAN BOY · BAR 5
THE BEAT, WRITTEN OUT →
THE SHAPE

How the song is built

135 bars across 27 sections: 115 keep time and 17 are silent. The longest unbroken stretch of time is bars 53-75.

CHORUS
CHORUS 2
PART C
CHORUS 4
CHORUS 5
CHORUS 6
PART C
CHORUS 9
PART C
CHORUS 10
CHORUS 11
OUTRO
14 groovesBCS1S19S8+9Fill into the next barFill that ends a sectionInto the next partStop / hitRest

Questions

What BPM is American Boy?

118 BPM, in 4/4, with the time kept in sixteenth notes. The room plays it at any tempo from a quarter of that up to the written one, against the record where the record can follow.

Is American Boy hard to play on drums?

39 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 35 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

135 bars, about 4:35 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 17 exercises over 4 sittings, about 26 minutes each.

What do I need on the kit?

hi-hat, snare and kick. Three pieces and no more -- this one is playable on almost anything with a kick, a snare and something to keep time on.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 135 BARS ANALYSED
AT THIS LEVEL

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