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Black Betty · Ram Jam

Black Betty · Ram Jam
EXERCISE 18 OF 35
Groove O
108 / 140 BARS COVERED
0 / 35 PASSED · 5 BARS LIT · IN THE PART M, OUTRO
PART A
PART B
PART A
PART B
PART M
OUTRO
OUTRO 2
4 groovesPBAMFill into the next barFill that ends a sectionInto the next partStop / hitRest
GROOVE · 6
FILL · 6
LAND · 6
RUN · 2
JOIN · 5
LINK · 5
SECTION · 4
WHOLE SONG · 1
ABOUT THIS DRUM PART

How to play Black Betty on drums

140 bars of 4/4 at 114 BPM, about 4:54 of playing, on crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, high tom, mid tom, floor tom, kick and hi-hat foot.

59 out of 100, a step up from a first song, and the work is in the independence between the hands and the feet.

TEMPO
114 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
140
LENGTH
4:54
DIFFICULTY
59/100

kick and crashes through bars 1-17, hi-hat through bars 18-25, kick and crashes through bars 26-37, hi-hat through bars 38-50, toms through bars 51-52 and ride through bars 53-57, and 8 more changes after that.

The beat

The beat the song is built on is one bar, played through bars 62-63, 66 and 70-80, and 2 more places -- 25% of every bar the kit plays. That is the spine of it; everything else is what happens around it.

    70
    1e+a2e+a3e+a4e+a
RD |x---x---x---x---|
SD |----x-------x---|
BD |x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-|
Black Betty -- the groove · x hit · o open hi-hat · g ghost note · r cross-stick · X accent

The fills

6 fills to learn, played 36 times: bars 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50 and 30 more.

What the course does

It cuts the song into 28 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 -- P, A -- 3 exercises, about 23 minutes.
  2. The grooves the song is built on -- B -- 4 exercises, about 28 minutes.
  3. Through Part A and Part B -- 3 exercises, about 14 minutes.
  4. Through Part M -- 1 exercise, about 17 minutes.
  5. Through Part B -- 1 exercise, about 17 minutes.
  6. Through Part B and Part M -- 5 exercises, about 30 minutes.
  7. Through Part M and the Outro -- 6 exercises, about 27 minutes. Open above.
  8. Through Part M and the Outro -- 4 exercises, about 19 minutes.
  9. and 2 more sittings after that.
START THE COURSE ↑

Questions

What BPM is Black Betty?

114 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 Black Betty hard to play on drums?

59 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 37 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

140 bars, about 4:54 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 28 exercises over 10 sittings, about 23 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 Black Betty?

6 fills to learn, played 36 times: bars 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50 and 30 more.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 140 BARS ANALYSED