← SONGS

Blank Space · I Prevail

EXERCISE 1 OF 37
Groove F -- Chorus (a two-bar phrase)
0 / 96 BARS COVERED
0 / 37 PASSED · 18 BARS LIT · IN THE CHORUS, CHORUS 2, OUTRO 2
PART A
PART B
PART D
CHORUS
PART B
PART K
PART D
CHORUS 2
PART O
OUTRO 2
9 groovesFDBAO+4Fill into the next barFill that ends a sectionInto the next partStop / hitRest
GROOVE · 7
FILL · 5
LAND · 5
RUN · 3
JOIN · 9
LINK · 3
SECTION · 4
WHOLE SONG · 1
ABOUT THIS DRUM PART

How to play Blank Space on drums

96 bars of 4/4 at a walking 97 BPM, 3:58 of playing, on crash, hi-hat, snare, mid tom, floor tom and kick.

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

TEMPO
97 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
96
LENGTH
3:58
DIFFICULTY
52/100

snare through bars 1-66, hi-hat through bars 67-71, snare through bars 72-79, silence through bars 80-83 and snare through bars 84-96.

The beat

The beat the song is built on is a 2-bar phrase, played through bars 27-31, 33 and 60-64, and 3 more places -- 19.8% of every bar the kit plays. This one moves around more than most: the beat is where to start, not the whole job.

    27               28
    1e+a2e+a3e+a4e+a 1e+a2e+a3e+a4e+a
CC |x---x---x---x---|x---x---x---x---|
SD |--------x-------|--------x---xx--|
T2 |----------------|--------------x-|
FT |----------------|---------------x|
BD |xxxx--xx---xxxx-|xxxx--xx---xx---|
Blank Space -- the groove · x hit · o open hi-hat · g ghost note · r cross-stick · X accent

The fills

5 fills to learn, played 14 times: bars 22, 26, 32, 34, 55, 59 and 8 more.

What the course does

It cuts the song into 31 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 -- F -- 3 exercises, about 19 minutes.
  2. The grooves the song is built on -- D -- 3 exercises, about 18 minutes.
  3. The grooves the song is built on -- B -- 4 exercises, about 27 minutes.
  4. Bars 15-34 -- 4 exercises, about 29 minutes.
  5. Through the Chorus and Part B -- 6 exercises, about 25 minutes.
  6. Bars 42-51 -- 4 exercises, about 28 minutes.
  7. Through the Chorus 2 and Part M -- 2 exercises, about 21 minutes.
  8. Through Part M and Part O -- 6 exercises, about 31 minutes.
  9. and 1 more sittings after that.
START THE COURSE ↑

Questions

What BPM is Blank Space?

97 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 Blank Space hard to play on drums?

52 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 44 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

96 bars, about 3:58 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 31 exercises over 9 sittings, about 25 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 Blank Space?

5 fills to learn, played 14 times: bars 22, 26, 32, 34, 55, 59 and 8 more.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 96 BARS ANALYSED