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Blue On Black · Kenny Wayne Shepherd

EXERCISE 9 OF 64
Groove C (a two-bar phrase)
41 / 105 BARS COVERED
0 / 64 PASSED · 5 BARS LIT · IN THE CHORUS, PART L, OUTRO
CHORUS
PART L
PART V
PART L
PART AH
PART V
PART AL
OUTRO
OUTRO 2
5 groovesALVALAHFill into the next barFill that ends a sectionInto the next partStop / hitRest
GROOVE · 17
FILL · 15
LAND · 15
RUN · 1
JOIN · 7
LINK · 3
SECTION · 5
WHOLE SONG · 1
ABOUT THIS DRUM PART

How to play Blue On Black on drums

105 bars of 4/4 at a walking 78 BPM, 5:23 of playing, on crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, high tom, mid tom, floor tom, kick and hi-hat foot.

68 out of 100: demanding, mostly on the independence between the hands and the feet.

TEMPO
78 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
105
LENGTH
5:23
DIFFICULTY
68/100

hi-hat through bars 1-20, ride through bars 21-26, hi-hat through bars 27-34, ride through bars 35-46, hi-hat through bars 47-48 and ride through bars 49-54, and 5 more changes after that.

The beat

The beat the song is built on is one bar, played through bars 1, 5 and 7, and 12 more places -- 14.3% of every bar the kit plays. This one moves around more than most: the beat is where to start, not the whole job.

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

The fills

15 fills to learn, played 22 times: bars 16, 24, 26, 32, 34, 38 and 16 more.

What the course does

It cuts the song into 48 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 -- A -- 1 exercise, about 16 minutes.
  2. The grooves the song is built on -- V -- 3 exercises, about 21 minutes.
  3. The grooves the song is built on -- L -- 3 exercises, about 20 minutes.
  4. Through the Chorus -- 1 exercise, about 16 minutes.
  5. Through the Chorus -- 1 exercise, about 16 minutes. Open above.
  6. Through the Chorus -- 2 exercises, about 22 minutes.
  7. Through the Chorus -- 1 exercise, about 17 minutes.
  8. Through the Chorus -- 3 exercises, about 24 minutes.
  9. and 12 more sittings after that.
START THE COURSE ↑

Questions

What BPM is Blue On Black?

78 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 Blue On Black hard to play on drums?

68 out of 100: demanding, mostly on the independence between the hands and the feet. The beat itself is 59 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

105 bars, about 5:23 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 48 exercises over 20 sittings, about 23 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 Blue On Black?

15 fills to learn, played 22 times: bars 16, 24, 26, 32, 34, 38 and 16 more.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 105 BARS ANALYSED