ABOUT THIS DRUM PART

How to play Ballade on drums

148 bars of 4/4 at 120 BPM, about 4:56 of playing, on crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, high tom, mid tom, floor tom, kick and hi-hat foot.

76 out of 100: demanding, mostly on the independence between the hands and the feet.

TEMPO: 120 BPM
TIME: 4/4
BARS: 148
LENGTH: 4:56
DIFFICULTY: 76/100

kick and crashes through bars 1-8, ride through bars 9-16, toms through bars 17-36, ride through bars 37-52, kick and crashes through bars 53-55 and toms through bars 56-64, and 5 more changes after that.

The beat

The beat the song is built on is a 2-bar phrase, played through bars 45-47, 49-51 and 73-75, and 7 more places -- 20.3% of every bar the kit plays. This one moves around more than most: the beat is where to start, not the whole job.

    45                               46
    1.......2.......3.......4....... 1.......2.......3.......4.......
CC |x-------x-------x-------x-------|x---x-------x-------x-------x---|
RD |------x---------------x-----x-x-|------x---------------x---------|
SD |----x-------x-------x-------x---|x-----x-x-----x-x-----x-x-----x-|
BD |x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-|x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-|

Ballade -- the groove · x hit · o open hi-hat · g ghost note · r cross-stick · X accent

The fills

2 fills to learn, played 2 times: bars 56 and 112.

What the course does

It cuts the song into 33 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.

The grooves the song is built on -- F -- 1 exercise, about 19 minutes.
The grooves the song is built on -- E, A -- 2 exercises, about 19 minutes. Open above.
Through Part A -- 2 exercises, about 18 minutes.
Through Part A -- 1 exercise, about 18 minutes.
Through Part A and Part E -- 4 exercises, about 29 minutes.
Bars 40-54 -- 4 exercises, about 30 minutes.
Bars 50-71 -- 4 exercises, about 15 minutes.
Through the Chorus 2 -- 1 exercise, about 19 minutes.
and 4 more sittings after that.

START THE COURSE ↑

Questions

What BPM is Ballade?

120 BPM, in 4/4, with the time kept in thirty-second 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 Ballade hard to play on drums?

76 out of 100: demanding, mostly on the independence between the hands and the feet. The beat itself is 80 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

148 bars, about 4:56 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 33 exercises over 12 sittings, about 24 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 Ballade?

2 fills to learn, played 2 times: bars 56 and 112.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 148 BARS ANALYSED