ABOUT THIS DRUM PART

How to play Bow Down on drums

71 bars of 4/4 at 140 BPM, about 2:00 of playing, on crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, high tom, mid tom, floor tom and kick.

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

TEMPO: 140 BPM
TIME: 4/4
BARS: 71
LENGTH: 2:00
DIFFICULTY: 73/100

kick and crashes through bars 1-2, snare through bars 3-14, ride through bars 15-16, snare through bars 17-22, ride through bars 23-24 and snare through bars 25-26, and 4 more changes after that.

The beat

The beat the song is built on is a 2-bar phrase, played through bars 3-5, 7 and 9-10, and 2 more places -- 18.3% 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-----------------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-----------|

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

The fills

3 fills to learn, played 4 times: bars 2, 31, 35 and 39.

What the course does

It cuts the song into 25 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 20 minutes. Open above.
The grooves the song is built on -- H -- 1 exercise, about 16 minutes.
The grooves the song is built on -- Z -- 2 exercises, about 21 minutes.
Through Part C -- 2 exercises, about 22 minutes.
Through Part C and the Chorus -- 3 exercises, about 28 minutes.
Through the Chorus -- 1 exercise, about 19 minutes.
Through the Chorus and Part P -- 3 exercises, about 27 minutes.
Through the Chorus and Part P -- 3 exercises, about 26 minutes.
and 3 more sittings after that.

START THE COURSE ↑

Questions

What BPM is Bow Down?

140 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 Bow Down hard to play on drums?

73 out of 100: demanding, mostly on the independence between the hands and the feet. The beat itself is 54 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

71 bars, about 2:00 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 25 exercises over 11 sittings, about 22 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 Bow Down?

3 fills to learn, played 4 times: bars 2, 31, 35 and 39.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 71 BARS ANALYSED