ABOUT THIS DRUM PART

How to play Brace Legs on drums

101 bars of 4/4 at 145 BPM, about 2:37 of playing, on crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, mid tom, floor tom and kick.

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

TEMPO: 145 BPM
TIME: 4/4
BARS: 101
LENGTH: 2:37
DIFFICULTY: 74/100

ride through bars 1-8, hi-hat through bars 9-11, snare through bars 12-28, ride through bars 29-34, snare through bars 35-36 and ride through bars 37-40, and 8 more changes after that.

The beat

The beat the song is built on is a 2-bar phrase, played through bars 29-33 and 37-39 -- 8.2% of every bar the kit plays. This one moves around more than most: the beat is where to start, not the whole job.

    29                                               30
    1...........2...........3...........4........... 1...........2...........3...........4...........
CC |x-----------------------------------------------|------------------------------------------------|
RD |---------x--------x--------x--------x--------x--|------x--------x--------x--------x--------x-----|
SD |------------------------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--x--x--x--x--x--x--x--x--x--|

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

The fills

9 fills to learn, played 13 times: bars 1, 3, 7, 11, 19, 20 and 7 more.

What the course does

It cuts the song into 52 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 -- R -- 1 exercise, about 20 minutes.
The grooves the song is built on -- AJ, AN -- 2 exercises, about 27 minutes.
Through Part B -- 6 exercises, about 34 minutes.
Through Part B and Part I -- 4 exercises, about 29 minutes.
Through Part B and Part I -- 5 exercises, about 22 minutes.
Through Part I and Part N -- 5 exercises, about 30 minutes.
Through Part N and the Chorus -- 3 exercises, about 28 minutes.
Bars 29-84 -- 3 exercises, about 25 minutes.
and 8 more sittings after that.

START THE COURSE ↑

Questions

What BPM is Brace Legs?

145 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 Brace Legs hard to play on drums?

74 out of 100: demanding, mostly on the independence between the hands and the feet. The beat itself is 81 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

101 bars, about 2:37 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 52 exercises over 16 sittings, about 27 minutes each.

What do I need on the kit?

crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, 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 Brace Legs?

9 fills to learn, played 13 times: bars 1, 3, 7, 11, 19, 20 and 7 more.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 101 BARS ANALYSED