← SONGS

Ashes To Ashes · David Bowie

EXERCISE 1 OF 19
Groove A -- Chorus
0 / 134 BARS COVERED
0 / 19 PASSED · 61 BARS LIT
CHORUS
PART C
PART D
PART C
PART D
CHORUS 2
PART C
PART D
PART C
PART D
OUTRO 2
3 groovesADCFill into the next barFill that ends a sectionInto the next partStop / hitRest
GROOVE · 5
RUN · 1
JOIN · 5
LINK · 5
SECTION · 2
WHOLE SONG · 1
ABOUT THIS DRUM PART

How to play Ashes To Ashes on drums

134 bars of 4/4 at 120 BPM, about 4:28 of playing, on hi-hat, snare and kick.

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

TEMPO
120 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
134
LENGTH
4:28
DIFFICULTY
48/100

The time is kept on the hi-hat the whole way through.

The beat

The beat the song is built on is one bar, played through bars 1-15, 40 and 51-65, and 3 more places -- 45.5% of every bar the kit plays. Learn that one and most of the song is already under your hands.

    3
    1e+a2e+a3e+a4e+a
HH |x-x-x-x-x-x-x-o-|
SD |----x-----x-----|
BD |x-x-----x-------|
Ashes To Ashes -- the groove · x hit · o open hi-hat · g ghost note · r cross-stick · X accent

The fills

There are no fills to speak of: the part holds one beat the whole way through.

What the course does

It cuts the song into 18 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 -- A, C -- 3 exercises, about 29 minutes. Open above.
  2. Through the Chorus and Part C -- 3 exercises, about 24 minutes.
  3. Through Part C and Part D -- 3 exercises, about 22 minutes.
  4. Through Part D and the Chorus 2 -- 4 exercises, about 30 minutes.
  5. Bars 90-108 -- 5 exercises, about 24 minutes.
  6. The whole song -- 1 exercise, about 10 minutes.
START THE COURSE ↑

Questions

What BPM is Ashes To Ashes?

120 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 Ashes To Ashes hard to play on drums?

48 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 33 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

134 bars, about 4:28 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 18 exercises over 6 sittings, about 23 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 · 134 BARS ANALYSED