Big Cheese · Nirvana

117 bars of 4/4 at 122 BPM, about 3:50 of playing, on crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, high tom, mid tom, floor tom and kick.

Alternative / IndieRock120 to 149 BPMAdvanced
TEMPO
122 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
117
LENGTH
3:50
DIFFICULTY
63/100
THE BEAT

One bar, and 20% of the song

The beat the song is built on is one bar, played through bars 45, 47 and 49-51, and 8 more places -- 20.2% of every bar the kit plays. This one moves around more than most: the beat is where to start, not the whole job.

LOOP · 122 BPM
BIG CHEESE · BAR 45
THE BEAT, WRITTEN OUT →
THE FILLS

Where it comes off the beat

9 fills to learn, played 33 times: bars 26, 27, 28, 42, 43, 44 and 27 more.

LOOP · 122 BPM
BARS 26-28 · LANDS ON BAR 29 · PLAYED 6 TIMES
LOOP · 122 BPM
BAR 46 · LANDS ON BAR 47 · PLAYED 6 TIMES
LOOP · 122 BPM
BAR 48 · LANDS ON BAR 49 · PLAYED 2 TIMES
LOOP · 122 BPM
BAR 56 · LANDS ON BAR 57 · PLAYED 2 TIMES

5 more fills are written out on the fills page.

EVERY FILL, WRITTEN OUT →
THE SHAPE

How the song is built

117 bars across 16 sections: 53 keep time, 33 are fills, 2 are stops and 8 are silent. The longest unbroken stretch of time is bars 9-17.

COUNT-IN
PART D
PART E
PART G
CHORUS
CHORUS 2
PART E
CHORUS 3
8 groovesKEGBD+3Fill into the next barFill that ends a sectionInto the next partStop / hitRest

Questions

What BPM is Big Cheese?

122 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 Big Cheese hard to play on drums?

63 out of 100, a step up from a first song, and the work is in the independence between the hands and the feet. The beat itself is 58 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

117 bars, about 3:50 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 39 exercises over 11 sittings, about 27 minutes each.

What do I need on the kit?

crash, ride, 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 Big Cheese?

9 fills to learn, played 33 times: bars 26, 27, 28, 42, 43, 44 and 27 more.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 117 BARS ANALYSED
MORE BY THIS BAND

Other Nirvana drum parts

EVERY NIRVANA CHART →
AT THIS LEVEL

Play something else today

EVERY SONG A-Z →