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Awkward Last Words · Armor For Sleep

EXERCISE 1 OF 67
Groove N -- Part N
0 / 152 BARS COVERED
0 / 67 PASSED · 35 BARS LIT
PART B
PART G
PART K
CHORUS
PART G
CHORUS 2
PART N
PART P
PART N
PART Y
PART AC
PART AD
PART F
CHORUS 3
OUTRO
12 groovesOGNBY+7Fill into the next barFill that ends a sectionInto the next partStop / hitRest
GROOVE · 10
FILL · 12
LAND · 12
RUN · 2
JOIN · 14
LINK · 11
SECTION · 5
WHOLE SONG · 1
ABOUT THIS DRUM PART

How to play Awkward Last Words on drums

152 bars of 4/4 at 130 BPM, about 4:41 of playing, on crash, hi-hat, snare, mid tom, floor tom and kick.

41 out of 100 -- a fair first song -- with the independence between the hands and the feet the part that decides it.

TEMPO
130 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
152
LENGTH
4:41
DIFFICULTY
41/100

hi-hat through bars 1-17, snare through bars 18-33, hi-hat through bars 34-35, snare through bars 36-97, hi-hat through bars 98-123 and snare through bars 124-137, and 4 more changes after that.

The beat

The beat the song is built on is one bar, played through bars 38-39, 42-44 and 46-47, and 12 more places -- 23.2% of every bar the kit plays. This one moves around more than most: the beat is where to start, not the whole job.

    39
    1e+a2e+a3e+a4e+a
CC |x---x---x---x---|
SD |--------x-------|
BD |x-----x-------x-|
Awkward Last Words -- the groove · x hit · o open hi-hat · g ghost note · r cross-stick · X accent

The fills

12 fills to learn, played 24 times: bars 33, 37, 41, 45, 62, 69 and 18 more.

What the course does

It cuts the song into 54 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 -- N, G -- 2 exercises, about 21 minutes.
  2. The grooves the song is built on -- O -- 3 exercises, about 29 minutes.
  3. Bars 3-19 -- 4 exercises, about 19 minutes.
  4. Through Part G -- 5 exercises, about 27 minutes.
  5. Bars 33-39 -- 5 exercises, about 19 minutes.
  6. Through the Chorus and Part G -- 5 exercises, about 27 minutes.
  7. Bars 44-70 -- 6 exercises, about 29 minutes.
  8. Bars 73-91 -- 8 exercises, about 29 minutes.
  9. and 5 more sittings after that.
START THE COURSE ↑

Questions

What BPM is Awkward Last Words?

130 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 Awkward Last Words hard to play on drums?

41 out of 100 -- a fair first song -- with the independence between the hands and the feet the part that decides it. The beat itself is 23 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

152 bars, about 4:41 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 54 exercises over 13 sittings, about 26 minutes each.

What do I need on the kit?

crash, hi-hat, snare, 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 Awkward Last Words?

12 fills to learn, played 24 times: bars 33, 37, 41, 45, 62, 69 and 18 more.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 152 BARS ANALYSED