ABOUT THIS DRUM PART

How to play Buttersnips on drums

154 bars of 4/4 at 135 BPM, about 4:56 of playing, on crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, mid tom, floor tom, kick and hi-hat foot.

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

TEMPO: 135 BPM
TIME: 4/4
BARS: 154
LENGTH: 4:56
DIFFICULTY: 72/100

hi-hat through bars 1-2, snare through bars 3-18, hi-hat through bars 19-27, snare through bars 28-62, toms through bars 63-64 and hi-hat through bars 65-70, and 10 more changes after that.

The beat

The beat the song is built on is a 2-bar phrase, played through bars 28-35 and 42-49 -- 11.2% of every bar the kit plays. This one moves around more than most: the beat is where to start, not the whole job.

    28                                         29
    1...........2...........3...........4..... 1...........2...........3...........4.....
CC |X-----------x-----------x-----------X-----|------x-----------x-----------x-----------|
SD |------x--------X-----------x--------X-----|------x--------x-----------x--------X-----|
BD |X-----x--x--x-----------x-----x--x--X-----|X-----x--x--x--------X--------x--x--X-----|

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

The fills

15 fills to learn, played 18 times: bars 1, 8, 16, 18, 56, 58 and 12 more.

What the course does

It cuts the song into 69 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 -- O -- 2 exercises, about 22 minutes.
The grooves the song is built on -- BF, C -- 2 exercises, about 30 minutes.
Through Part C -- 4 exercises, about 28 minutes.
Bars 7-17 -- 3 exercises, about 26 minutes.
Through the Chorus and Part C -- 4 exercises, about 30 minutes.
Bars 7-15 -- 3 exercises, about 25 minutes.
Through Part C and the Chorus 2 -- 4 exercises, about 29 minutes.
Bars 20-28 -- 4 exercises, about 28 minutes.
and 14 more sittings after that.

START THE COURSE ↑

Questions

What BPM is Buttersnips?

135 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 Buttersnips hard to play on drums?

72 out of 100: demanding, mostly on the independence between the hands and the feet. The beat itself is 64 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

154 bars, about 4:56 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 69 exercises over 22 sittings, about 27 minutes each.

What do I need on the kit?

crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, 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 Buttersnips?

15 fills to learn, played 18 times: bars 1, 8, 16, 18, 56, 58 and 12 more.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 154 BARS ANALYSED