"Black Sun" · Death Cab For Cutie

101 bars of 4/4 at a walking 88 BPM, 4:35 of playing, on crash, hi-hat, snare, mid tom, floor tom and kick.

Under 90 BPM
TEMPO
88 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
101
LENGTH
4:35
DIFFICULTY
38/100
THE BEAT

One bar, and 31% of the song

The beat the song is built on is one bar, played through bars 1, 3 and 5, and 26 more places -- 31.2% of every bar the kit plays. That is the spine of it; everything else is what happens around it.

LOOP · 88 BPM
"BLACK SUN" · BAR 1
THE BEAT, WRITTEN OUT →
THE FILLS

Where it comes off the beat

3 fills to learn, played 3 times: bars 32, 72 and 76.

LOOP · 88 BPM
BAR 32 · LANDS ON BAR 33
LOOP · 88 BPM
BAR 72 · LANDS ON BAR 73
LOOP · 88 BPM
BAR 76 · LANDS ON BAR 77
EVERY FILL, WRITTEN OUT →
THE SHAPE

How the song is built

101 bars across 5 sections: 87 keep time, 3 are fills and 8 are silent. The longest unbroken stretch of time is bars 33-68.

PART B
CHORUS
PART A
BREAK
OUTRO
5 groovesCBAIS4Fill into the next barFill that ends a sectionInto the next partStop / hitRest

Questions

What BPM is "Black Sun"?

88 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 Sun" 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 31 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

101 bars, about 4:35 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 18 exercises over 4 sittings, about 29 minutes each.

What do I need on the kit?

crash, hi-hat, snare, 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 Sun"?

3 fills to learn, played 3 times: bars 32, 72 and 76.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 101 BARS ANALYSED
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