Ants Marching · Dave Matthews Band

125 bars of 4/4 at 113 BPM, about 4:25 of playing, on crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, high tom, mid tom, floor tom and kick.

Alternative / IndiePop90 to 119 BPMIntermediate
TEMPO
113 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
125
LENGTH
4:25
DIFFICULTY
58/100
THE BEAT

One bar, and 12% of the song

The beat the song is built on is one bar, played through bars 8, 11-17 and 23-24, and 4 more places -- 12% of every bar the kit plays. This one moves around more than most: the beat is where to start, not the whole job.

LOOP · 113 BPM
ANTS MARCHING · BAR 23
THE BEAT, WRITTEN OUT →
THE FILLS

Where it comes off the beat

18 fills to learn, played 36 times: bars 10, 18, 26, 32, 34, 46 and 30 more.

LOOP · 113 BPM
BAR 10 · LANDS ON BAR 11 · PLAYED 2 TIMES
LOOP · 113 BPM
BAR 18 · LANDS ON BAR 19
LOOP · 113 BPM
BAR 32 · LANDS ON BAR 33
LOOP · 113 BPM
BAR 34 · LANDS ON BAR 35

14 more fills are written out on the fills page.

EVERY FILL, WRITTEN OUT →
THE SHAPE

How the song is built

125 bars across 12 sections: 69 keep time, 36 are fills and 3 are stops. The longest unbroken stretch of time is bars 57-65.

PART A
CHORUS
PART J
CHORUS 2
PART J
PART AE
PART AH
PART A
OUTRO
OUTRO 2
7 groovesCJAHAAE+2Fill into the next barFill that ends a sectionInto the next partStop / hitRest

Questions

What BPM is Ants Marching?

113 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 Ants Marching hard to play on drums?

58 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 40 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

125 bars, about 4:25 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 57 exercises over 16 sittings, about 27 minutes each.

What do I need on the kit?

crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, high tom, mid tom, floor 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 Ants Marching?

18 fills to learn, played 36 times: bars 10, 18, 26, 32, 34, 46 and 30 more.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 125 BARS ANALYSED
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