Boris · Melvins

96 bars, 5:36, at 63 BPM: slow enough that every note is exposed. Crash, hi-hat, snare, high tom, mid tom, floor tom, kick and hi-hat foot and nothing else.

MetalAlternative / IndieUnder 90 BPM
TEMPO
63 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
96
LENGTH
5:36
DIFFICULTY
46/100
THE BEAT

One bar, and 9% of the song

The beat the song is built on is a 2-bar phrase, played through bars 42-43, 74-75 and 78, and 2 more places -- 9.3% of every bar the kit plays. This one moves around more than most: the beat is where to start, not the whole job.

LOOP · 63 BPM
BORIS · BARS 42-43
THE BEAT, WRITTEN OUT →
THE FILLS

Where it comes off the beat

9 fills to learn, played 32 times: bars 21, 25, 27, 33, 36, 37 and 26 more.

LOOP · 63 BPM
BAR 21 · LANDS ON BAR 22 · PLAYED 6 TIMES
LOOP · 63 BPM
BAR 25 · LANDS ON BAR 26 · PLAYED 3 TIMES
LOOP · 63 BPM
BAR 27 · LANDS ON BAR 28 · PLAYED 4 TIMES
LOOP · 63 BPM
BAR 33 · LANDS ON BAR 34

5 more fills are written out on the fills page.

EVERY FILL, WRITTEN OUT →
THE SHAPE

How the song is built

96 bars across 13 sections: 21 keep time, 32 are fills, 22 are stops and 10 are silent. The longest unbroken stretch of time is bars 8-12.

COUNT-IN
PART S2
PART J
CHORUS
PART T
PART J
PART S8
PART T
CHORUS 2
OUTRO
OUTRO 2
9 groovesNJTS1S12+4Fill into the next barFill that ends a sectionInto the next partStop / hitRest

Questions

What BPM is Boris?

63 BPM, in 4/4, with the time kept in sixteenth notes. Slow enough to hear every mistake, which is why the room lets you sit at the written tempo rather than under it.

Is Boris hard to play on drums?

46 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 30 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

96 bars, about 5:36 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 34 exercises over 9 sittings, about 26 minutes each.

What do I need on the kit?

crash, 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 Boris?

9 fills to learn, played 32 times: bars 21, 25, 27, 33, 36, 37 and 26 more.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 96 BARS ANALYSED
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