Black Cow · Steely Dan

126 bars of 4/4 at a walking 92 BPM, 5:29 of playing, on crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, high tom, mid tom, floor tom and kick.

RockJazz / Blues90 to 119 BPMBeginner
TEMPO
92 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
126
LENGTH
5:29
DIFFICULTY
49/100
THE BEAT

One bar, and 41% of the song

The beat the song is built on is one bar, played through bars 1-7, 9-11 and 13-14, and 11 more places -- 41.3% of every bar the kit plays. Learn that one and most of the song is already under your hands.

LOOP · 92 BPM
BLACK COW · BAR 2
THE BEAT, WRITTEN OUT →
THE FILLS

Where it comes off the beat

5 fills to learn, played 9 times: bars 24, 31, 32, 52, 58, 59 and 3 more.

LOOP · 92 BPM
BAR 24 · LANDS ON BAR 25 · PLAYED 2 TIMES
LOOP · 92 BPM
BARS 31-32 · LANDS ON BAR 33 · PLAYED 2 TIMES
LOOP · 92 BPM
BAR 52 · LANDS ON BAR 53
LOOP · 92 BPM
BARS 58-60 · LANDS ON BAR 61 · PLAYED 3 TIMES

1 more fill is written out on the fills page.

EVERY FILL, WRITTEN OUT →
THE SHAPE

How the song is built

126 bars across 4 sections: 112 keep time and 9 are fills. The longest unbroken stretch of time is bars 92-126.

CHORUS
PART L
OUTRO
OUTRO 2
2 groovesALFill into the next barFill that ends a sectionInto the next partStop / hitRest

Questions

What BPM is Black Cow?

92 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 Cow hard to play on drums?

49 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 24 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

126 bars, about 5:29 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 19 exercises over 6 sittings, about 25 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 Black Cow?

5 fills to learn, played 9 times: bars 24, 31, 32, 52, 58, 59 and 3 more.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 126 BARS ANALYSED
MORE BY THIS BAND

Other Steely Dan drum parts

EVERY STEELY DAN CHART →
AT THIS LEVEL

Play something else today

EVERY SONG A-Z →