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Boris · Melvins

EXERCISE 13 OF 44
Join Part J to Chorus (bars 22-24)
44 / 96 BARS COVERED
0 / 44 PASSED · 3 BARS LIT · IN THE PART J, CHORUS
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
GROOVE · 8
FILL · 9
LAND · 9
RUN · 1
JOIN · 9
LINK · 1
SECTION · 6
WHOLE SONG · 1
ABOUT THIS DRUM PART

How to play Boris on drums

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.

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

TEMPO
63 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
96
LENGTH
5:36
DIFFICULTY
46/100

silence through bars 1-7, toms through bars 8-15, hi-hat through bars 16-79, silence through bars 80-81 and hi-hat through bars 82-96.

The beat

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.

    42               43
    1e+a2e+a3e+a4e+a 1e+a2e+a3e+a4e+a
HH |----o-------o---|--------o-----o-|
SD |----x-------x---|--------x-----x-|
FT |--------x-------|x---------------|
BD |--x---x---x---x-|--x-x-x---x-x---|
HF |------x-------x-|----------x-----|
Boris -- the groove · x hit · o open hi-hat · g ghost note · r cross-stick · X accent

The fills

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

What the course does

It cuts the song into 34 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 -- W (a two-bar phrase), I -- 2 exercises, about 22 minutes.
  2. The grooves the song is built on -- J -- 5 exercises, about 26 minutes.
  3. Bars 12-32 -- 5 exercises, about 27 minutes.
  4. Through Part J and the Chorus -- 3 exercises, about 29 minutes. Open above.
  5. Bars 20-35 -- 7 exercises, about 31 minutes.
  6. Through Part T and Part J -- 8 exercises, about 29 minutes.
  7. Bars 39-79 -- 6 exercises, about 27 minutes.
  8. Bars 78-89 -- 5 exercises, about 22 minutes.
  9. and 1 more sittings after that.
START THE COURSE ↑

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