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American Pie · Madonna

EXERCISE 1 OF 12
Groove C -- Chorus
0 / 136 BARS COVERED
0 / 12 PASSED · 102 BARS LIT · IN THE CHORUS, OUTRO
COUNT-IN
CHORUS
OUTRO
4 groovesCS1ES4Fill into the next barFill that ends a sectionInto the next partStop / hitRest
GROOVE · 4
FILL · 1
LAND · 1
RUN · 1
JOIN · 2
SECTION · 2
WHOLE SONG · 1
ABOUT THIS DRUM PART

How to play American Pie on drums

136 bars of 4/4 at 148 BPM, about 3:41 of playing, on hi-hat, snare and kick.

46 out of 100, a step up from a first song, and the work is in the independence between the hands and the feet.

TEMPO
148 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
136
LENGTH
3:41
DIFFICULTY
46/100

silence through bars 1-15, snare through bars 16-17, hi-hat through bars 18-113, kick and crashes through bars 114-119, snare through bars 120-122 and hi-hat through bars 123-132, and 1 more change after that.

The beat

The beat the song is built on is one bar, played through bars 18-111, 123-129 and 131 -- 85% of every bar the kit plays. Learn that one and the song is very nearly finished.

    18
    1e+a2e+a3e+a4e+a
HH |x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-|
SD |----x-------x---|
BD |x-x-----x-x-----|
American Pie -- the groove · x hit · o open hi-hat · g ghost note · r cross-stick · X accent

The fills

1 fill to learn, played 5 times: bars 132, 133, 134, 135 and 136.

What the course does

It cuts the song into 10 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 -- C -- 4 exercises, about 30 minutes.
  2. Bars 111-134 -- 4 exercises, about 23 minutes.
  3. The whole song -- 2 exercises, about 25 minutes.
  4. Through the Outro -- 2 exercises, about 9 minutes.
START THE COURSE ↑

Questions

What BPM is American Pie?

148 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 Pie hard to play on drums?

46 out of 100, a step up from a first song, and the work is in the independence between the hands and the feet. The beat itself is 38 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

136 bars, about 3:41 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 10 exercises over 4 sittings, about 22 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.

How many fills are in American Pie?

1 fill to learn, played 5 times: bars 132, 133, 134, 135 and 136.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 136 BARS ANALYSED