Building the Church · Steve Vai

110 bars of 4/4 at a walking 94 BPM, 4:41 of playing, on crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, high tom, mid tom, floor tom, kick and hi-hat foot.

RockProgressive90 to 119 BPM
TEMPO
94 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
110
LENGTH
4:41
DIFFICULTY
62/100
THE BEAT

One bar, and 31% of the song

The beat the song is built on is one bar, played through bars 9-16, 32-34 and 36-38, and 8 more places -- 31.1% of every bar the kit plays. That is the spine of it; everything else is what happens around it.

LOOP · 94 BPM
BUILDING THE CHURCH · BAR 11
THE BEAT, WRITTEN OUT →
THE FILLS

Where it comes off the beat

5 fills to learn, played 15 times: bars 20, 27, 31, 35, 47, 51 and 9 more.

LOOP · 94 BPM
BAR 20 · LANDS ON BAR 21
LOOP · 94 BPM
BAR 27 · LANDS ON BAR 28 · PLAYED 5 TIMES
LOOP · 94 BPM
BAR 31 · LANDS ON BAR 32 · PLAYED 3 TIMES
LOOP · 94 BPM
BAR 35 · LANDS ON BAR 36 · PLAYED 3 TIMES

1 more fill is written out on the fills page.

EVERY FILL, WRITTEN OUT →
THE SHAPE

How the song is built

110 bars across 14 sections: 75 keep time, 15 are fills and 4 are silent. The longest unbroken stretch of time is bars 75-85.

CHORUS
PART G
CHORUS 2
PART G
PART B
CHORUS 3
PART B
PART G
OUTRO 2
4 groovesDBGS1Fill into the next barFill that ends a sectionInto the next partStop / hitRest

Questions

What BPM is Building the Church?

94 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 Building the Church hard to play on drums?

62 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 48 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

110 bars, about 4:41 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 23 exercises over 7 sittings, about 26 minutes each.

What do I need on the kit?

crash, ride, 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 Building the Church?

5 fills to learn, played 15 times: bars 20, 27, 31, 35, 47, 51 and 9 more.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 110 BARS ANALYSED
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