Better Than Drugs · Skillet

171 bars at 176 BPM -- fast, and 3:53 of it without a break -- on crash, hi-hat, snare, high tom, mid tom, floor tom and kick.

RockAlternative / Indie150 BPM and up
TEMPO
176 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
171
LENGTH
3:53
DIFFICULTY
44/100
THE BEAT

One bar, and 20% of the song

The beat the song is built on is one bar, played through bars 29, 31 and 35, and 27 more places -- 19.7% of every bar the kit plays. This one moves around more than most: the beat is where to start, not the whole job.

LOOP · 176 BPM
BETTER THAN DRUGS · BAR 39
THE BEAT, WRITTEN OUT →
THE FILLS

Where it comes off the beat

5 fills to learn, played 10 times: bars 37, 38, 54, 87, 88, 104 and 4 more.

LOOP · 176 BPM
BARS 37-38 · LANDS ON BAR 39 · PLAYED 4 TIMES
LOOP · 176 BPM
BAR 54 · LANDS ON BAR 55 · PLAYED 2 TIMES
LOOP · 176 BPM
BAR 119 · LANDS ON BAR 120
LOOP · 176 BPM
BAR 138 · LANDS ON BAR 139 · PLAYED 2 TIMES

1 more fill is written out on the fills page.

EVERY FILL, WRITTEN OUT →
THE SHAPE

How the song is built

171 bars across 17 sections: 59 keep time, 11 are fills, 67 are stops and 19 are silent. The longest unbroken stretch of time is bars 17-29.

PART S2
PART F
CHORUS
PART M
PART F
CHORUS 2
PART I
PART S15
OUTRO
OUTRO 2
11 groovesJFHIM+6Fill into the next barFill that ends a sectionInto the next partStop / hitRest

Questions

What BPM is Better Than Drugs?

176 BPM, in 4/4, with the time kept in sixteenth notes. At that speed the sixteenth notes are the whole difficulty, so the room will take it down to a quarter of it and climb back.

Is Better Than Drugs hard to play on drums?

44 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 29 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

171 bars, about 3:53 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 39 exercises over 8 sittings, about 29 minutes each.

What do I need on the kit?

crash, hi-hat, snare, high tom, 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 Better Than Drugs?

5 fills to learn, played 10 times: bars 37, 38, 54, 87, 88, 104 and 4 more.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 171 BARS ANALYSED
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