Atom Heart Mother · Pink Floyd

391 bars, 23:42, at 66 BPM: slow enough that every note is exposed. Crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, high tom, mid tom, floor tom, kick and hi-hat foot and nothing else.

RockProgressiveUnder 90 BPM
TEMPO
66 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
391
LENGTH
23:42
DIFFICULTY
48/100
THE BEAT

One bar, and 12% of the song

The beat the song is built on is one bar, played through bars 169-205 -- 11.9% of every bar the kit plays. This one moves around more than most: the beat is where to start, not the whole job.

LOOP · 66 BPM
ATOM HEART MOTHER · BAR 170
THE BEAT, WRITTEN OUT →
THE FILLS

Where it comes off the beat

21 fills to learn, played 84 times: bars 11, 21, 23, 25, 38, 39 and 78 more.

LOOP · 66 BPM
BAR 11 · LANDS ON BAR 12
LOOP · 66 BPM
BAR 21 · LANDS ON BAR 22
LOOP · 66 BPM
BAR 23 · LANDS ON BAR 24
LOOP · 66 BPM
BAR 25 · LANDS ON BAR 26

17 more fills are written out on the fills page.

EVERY FILL, WRITTEN OUT →
THE SHAPE

How the song is built

391 bars across 26 sections: 191 keep time, 84 are fills, 17 are stops and 80 are silent. The longest unbroken stretch of time is bars 92-146.

CHORUS
PART AO
CHORUS 3
PART S20
PART BB
22 groovesAS20AOBBS+17Fill into the next barFill that ends a sectionInto the next partStop / hitRest

Questions

What BPM is Atom Heart Mother?

66 BPM, in 4/4, with the time kept in thirty-second notes. Slow enough to hear every mistake, which is why the room lets you sit at the written tempo rather than under it.

Is Atom Heart Mother hard to play on drums?

48 out of 100, a step up from a first song, and the work is in how fine the subdivision is. The beat itself is 27 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

391 bars, about 23:42 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 81 exercises over 24 sittings, about 26 minutes each.

What do I need on the kit?

crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, high tom, mid tom, floor tom, kick and hi-hat foot. That is most of a full kit; the part moves around it rather than sitting in one place.

How many fills are in Atom Heart Mother?

21 fills to learn, played 84 times: bars 11, 21, 23, 25, 38, 39 and 78 more.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 391 BARS ANALYSED
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