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Block · Machine Head

EXERCISE 7 OF 70
Fill at bar 7 and 100 (a small one)
49 / 145 BARS COVERED
0 / 70 PASSED · 2 BARS LIT · IN THE CHORUS, PART AK
CHORUS
PART P
PART AB
PART AG
PART AK
CHORUS 2
PART P
OUTRO 2
11 groovesDAKPLAG+6Fill into the next barFill that ends a sectionInto the next partStop / hitRest
GROOVE · 16
FILL · 13
LAND · 13
RUN · 4
JOIN · 12
LINK · 3
SECTION · 8
WHOLE SONG · 1
ABOUT THIS DRUM PART

How to play Block on drums

145 bars of 4/4 at a walking 106 BPM, 5:10 of playing, on crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, high tom, mid tom, floor tom, kick and hi-hat foot.

93 out of 100. Hard, and what makes it hard is the independence between the hands and the feet.

TEMPO
106 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
145
LENGTH
5:10
DIFFICULTY
93/100

hi-hat through bar 1, toms through bars 2-9, hi-hat through bars 10-11, toms through bars 12-13, hi-hat through bars 14-47 and toms through bars 48-49, and 15 more changes after that.

The beat

The beat the song is built on is a 2-bar phrase, played through bars 14-17, 36-39 and 50, and 1 more place -- 9.1% of every bar the kit plays. This one moves around more than most: the beat is where to start, not the whole job.

    14                           15
    1.......2.......3.......4... 1.......2.......3.......4...
CC |x---------------------------|x---------------------------|
HH |----o---o---o---o---o-------|----o---o---o---o---o---o---|
SD |--------X---------------X-X-|--------X---------------X---|
BD |x-----xx------x---x---x-----|x-----x-------x---x---x---x-|
Block -- the groove · x hit · o open hi-hat · g ghost note · r cross-stick · X accent

The fills

13 fills to learn, played 42 times: bars 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7 and 36 more.

What the course does

It cuts the song into 56 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 -- J -- 1 exercise, about 17 minutes.
  2. The grooves the song is built on -- AG -- 1 exercise, about 15 minutes.
  3. The grooves the song is built on -- L -- 1 exercise, about 16 minutes.
  4. Bars 1-101 -- 3 exercises, about 29 minutes.
  5. Through the Chorus and Part J -- 6 exercises, about 28 minutes. Open above.
  6. Through Part L -- 1 exercise, about 19 minutes.
  7. Through Part L and Part P -- 3 exercises, about 26 minutes.
  8. Through Part P and Part T -- 4 exercises, about 31 minutes.
  9. and 13 more sittings after that.
START THE COURSE ↑

Questions

What BPM is Block?

106 BPM, in 4/4, with the time kept in thirty-second 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 Block hard to play on drums?

93 out of 100. Hard, and what makes it hard is the independence between the hands and the feet. The beat itself is 68 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

145 bars, about 5:10 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 56 exercises over 21 sittings, about 25 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 Block?

13 fills to learn, played 42 times: bars 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7 and 36 more.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 145 BARS ANALYSED