Black Muddy River · Grateful Dead

103 bars, 5:52, at 62 BPM: slow enough that every note is exposed. Crash, hi-hat, snare, high tom, mid tom and kick and nothing else.

RockCountry / FolkUnder 90 BPM
TEMPO
62 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
103
LENGTH
5:52
DIFFICULTY
38/100
THE BEAT

One bar, and 30% of the song

The beat the song is built on is one bar, played through bars 4, 7-11 and 16, and 12 more places -- 30.4% of every bar the kit plays. That is the spine of it; everything else is what happens around it.

LOOP · 62 BPM
BLACK MUDDY RIVER · BAR 16
THE BEAT, WRITTEN OUT →
THE FILLS

Where it comes off the beat

9 fills to learn, played 17 times: bars 5, 13, 17, 28, 29, 33 and 11 more.

LOOP · 62 BPM
BAR 5 · LANDS ON BAR 6
LOOP · 62 BPM
BAR 13 · LANDS ON BAR 14 · PLAYED 2 TIMES
LOOP · 62 BPM
BAR 17 · LANDS ON BAR 18 · PLAYED 3 TIMES
LOOP · 62 BPM
BARS 28-29 · LANDS ON BAR 30 · PLAYED 2 TIMES

5 more fills are written out on the fills page.

EVERY FILL, WRITTEN OUT →
THE SHAPE

How the song is built

103 bars across 7 sections: 78 keep time, 17 are fills and 1 is silent. The longest unbroken stretch of time is bars 82-103.

CHORUS
PART B
CHORUS 2
PART B
OUTRO
OUTRO 2
4 groovesCBTS1Fill into the next barFill that ends a sectionInto the next partStop / hitRest

Questions

What BPM is Black Muddy River?

62 BPM, in 4/4, with the time kept in sixteenth notes. Slow enough to hear every mistake, which is why the room lets you sit at the written tempo rather than under it.

Is Black Muddy River hard to play on drums?

38 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 24 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

103 bars, about 5:52 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 24 exercises over 6 sittings, about 25 minutes each.

What do I need on the kit?

crash, hi-hat, snare, high tom, mid 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 Muddy River?

9 fills to learn, played 17 times: bars 5, 13, 17, 28, 29, 33 and 11 more.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 103 BARS ANALYSED
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