PINK FLOYD · DRUM BEAT

The drum beat in Brain Damage

The beat the song is built on is one bar, played through bars 43-45, 47-48 and 51-53, and 5 more places -- 15.6% of every bar the kit plays. This one moves around more than most: the beat is where to start, not the whole job.

TEMPO
132 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
128
LENGTH
3:53
DIFFICULTY
17/100

The beat, written out

LOOP · 132 BPM
BRAIN DAMAGE · BAR 43

It is played on crash, ride, snare and kick, counted in sixteenth notes. On its own it scores 16 out of 100 -- straightforward -- and the thing that decides that is how often it moves around the kit.

The whole song is 17 out of 100, so the beat is most of what the song asks for. Get it clean and the rest follows.

How to get it under your hands

The room opens this beat on its simplest reduction, at 99 BPM, and adds the notes back a rung at a time -- 3 of them. Nothing is a matter of opinion: each rung has a tempo to reach and a gate to pass before the next one.

  1. Kick and snare, whole. The feet and the snare exactly as written, ride pulled back to quarter notes. This is the part to know by heart.
  2. As written. Open hi-hat, ghost notes, accents and the crash where they belong.

Tempo goes 99, 116 and 132 BPM, and the gate at each one is 8 loops in a row with no wrong note and no wobble in the time.

PRACTISE THIS BEAT →

Questions

What drum beat does Brain Damage use?

A one-bar groove on crash, ride, snare and kick, in 4/4 at 132 BPM, counted in sixteenth notes. It is written out above, and it covers 15.6% of the bars the kit plays.

Where does the beat come in?

Bars 43-45, 47-48, 51-53 and 55-56, and 4 more places. The time is kept on the kick and crashes to start with, and it changes 13 times over the song.

Is the beat in Brain Damage hard?

16 out of 100 on its own -- straightforward. The song as a whole is 17 out of 100: straightforward, and the one thing to watch is how often it moves around the kit.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 128 BARS ANALYSED