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Atom Heart Mother · Pink Floyd

EXERCISE 1 OF 103
Groove AO -- Part AO
0 / 391 BARS COVERED
0 / 103 PASSED · 37 BARS LIT · IN THE PART AO
CHORUS
PART AO
CHORUS 3
PART S20
PART BB
22 groovesAS20AOBBS+17Fill into the next barFill that ends a sectionInto the next partStop / hitRest
GROOVE · 15
FILL · 21
LAND · 21
RUN · 6
JOIN · 21
LINK · 2
SECTION · 16
WHOLE SONG · 1
ABOUT THIS DRUM PART

How to play Atom Heart Mother on drums

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.

48 out of 100, a step up from a first song, and the work is in how fine the subdivision is.

TEMPO
66 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
391
LENGTH
23:42
DIFFICULTY
48/100

silence through bars 1-10, kick and crashes through bars 11-12, silence through bars 13-25, snare through bars 26-29, silence through bars 30-37 and toms through bars 38-42, and 30 more changes after that.

The beat

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.

    170
    1...........2...........3...........4...........
HH |------------o-----------------------------------|
SD |------------x-----------------------x-----------|
BD |x-----x-----------------x-----x-----------------|
Atom Heart Mother -- the groove · x hit · o open hi-hat · g ghost note · r cross-stick · X accent

The fills

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

What the course does

It cuts the song into 81 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 -- AO, AT -- 3 exercises, about 30 minutes.
  2. The grooves the song is built on -- BT -- 5 exercises, about 27 minutes.
  3. Through Part S2 and the Break -- 5 exercises, about 29 minutes.
  4. Through Part C -- 8 exercises, about 36 minutes.
  5. Bars 20-45 -- 3 exercises, about 25 minutes.
  6. Bars 29-47 -- 6 exercises, about 30 minutes.
  7. Through Part S8 and Part R -- 4 exercises, about 30 minutes.
  8. Through Part S8 and Part R -- 3 exercises, about 24 minutes.
  9. and 16 more sittings after that.
START THE COURSE ↑

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