ABOUT THIS DRUM PART

How to play Blood Eagle on drums

181 bars of 4/4 at 125 BPM, about 5:59 of playing, on crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, high tom, mid tom, floor tom and kick.

76 out of 100: demanding, mostly on how much of it falls off the beat.

TEMPO: 125 BPM
TIME: 4/4
BARS: 181
LENGTH: 5:59
DIFFICULTY: 76/100

snare through bars 3-23, ride through bars 24-26, hi-hat through bars 27-42, snare through bars 43-59, hi-hat through bars 60-76 and snare through bars 77-116, and 7 more changes after that.

The beat

The beat the song is built on is a 2-bar phrase, played through bars 3-4, 11-12 and 43-44, and 6 more places -- 10.3% of every bar the kit plays. This one moves around more than most: the beat is where to start, not the whole job.

    3                                                4
    1...........2...........3...........4........... 1...........2...........3...........4...........
CC |x-----------x-----------x-----------x-----------|x-----------x-----------x-----------x-----------|
SD |------------------------x-----------------------|------------------------x-----------------------|
BD |x-x-x-x--x--x--x-----------x-x-x-x--x--x--x--x--|---x-x-x-x--x--x--x--x--------x-x-x-x--x-----x-x|

Blood Eagle -- the groove · x hit · o open hi-hat · g ghost note · r cross-stick · X accent

The fills

8 fills to learn, played 21 times: bars 2, 39, 42, 59, 60, 61 and 15 more.

What the course does

It cuts the song into 41 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.

The grooves the song is built on -- C -- 3 exercises, about 22 minutes.
The grooves the song is built on -- H -- 1 exercise, about 16 minutes.
The grooves the song is built on -- AI -- 2 exercises, about 21 minutes.
Through the Chorus -- 1 exercise, about 19 minutes.
Through the Chorus -- 2 exercises, about 21 minutes.
Through Part R -- 1 exercise, about 19 minutes.
Through the Chorus and Part R -- 3 exercises, about 27 minutes. Open above.
Through Part R and the Chorus 2 -- 5 exercises, about 30 minutes.
and 7 more sittings after that.

START THE COURSE ↑

Questions

What BPM is Blood Eagle?

125 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 Blood Eagle hard to play on drums?

76 out of 100: demanding, mostly on how much of it falls off the beat. The beat itself is 61 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

181 bars, about 5:59 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 41 exercises over 15 sittings, about 24 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 Blood Eagle?

8 fills to learn, played 21 times: bars 2, 39, 42, 59, 60, 61 and 15 more.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 181 BARS ANALYSED