Boys Keep Swinging · David Bowie

100 bars of 4/4 at 123 BPM, about 3:15 of playing, on crash, hi-hat, snare and kick.

RockPop120 to 149 BPMFour drums or fewer
TEMPO
123 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
100
LENGTH
3:15
DIFFICULTY
44/100
THE BEAT

One bar, and 58% of the song

The beat the song is built on is one bar, played through bars 18-22, 25-29 and 32-34, and 9 more places -- 58% of every bar the kit plays. Learn that one and most of the song is already under your hands.

LOOP · 123 BPM
BOYS KEEP SWINGING · BAR 18
THE BEAT, WRITTEN OUT →
THE SHAPE

How the song is built

100 bars across 2 sections: 98 keep time. The longest unbroken stretch of time is bars 18-100.

OUTRO
OUTRO 2
2 groovesDAFill into the next barFill that ends a sectionInto the next partStop / hitRest

Questions

What BPM is Boys Keep Swinging?

123 BPM, in 4/4, with the time kept in sixteenth 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 Boys Keep Swinging hard to play on drums?

44 out of 100 -- a fair first song -- with the independence between the hands and the feet the part that decides it. The beat itself is 29 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

100 bars, about 3:15 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 9 exercises over 3 sittings, about 27 minutes each.

What do I need on the kit?

crash, hi-hat, snare and kick. Nothing in the part asks for anything else.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 100 BARS ANALYSED
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