American · Simple Minds

101 bars of 4/4 at 118 BPM, about 3:25 of playing, on snare, high tom, mid tom and kick.

PopAlternative / Indie90 to 119 BPMFour drums or fewer
TEMPO
118 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
101
LENGTH
3:25
DIFFICULTY
24/100
THE BEAT

One bar, and 95% of the song

The beat the song is built on is one bar, played through bars 1-15, 17-49 and 51-75, and 2 more places -- 95% of every bar the kit plays. Learn that one and the song is very nearly finished.

LOOP · 118 BPM
AMERICAN · BAR 1
THE SHAPE

How the song is built

101 bars: 101 keep time. The longest unbroken stretch of time is bars 1-101.

OUTRO
1 grooveAFill into the next barFill that ends a sectionInto the next partStop / hitRest

Questions

What BPM is American?

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 hard to play on drums?

24 out of 100: straightforward, and the one thing to watch is the independence between the hands and the feet. The beat itself is 13 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

101 bars, about 3:25 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 4 exercises over 2 sittings, about 19 minutes each.

What do I need on the kit?

snare, high tom, mid tom and kick. Nothing in the part asks for anything else.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 101 BARS ANALYSED
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