By The Way · Red Hot Chili Peppers

100 bars of 4/4 at 120 BPM, about 3:20 of playing, on crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, high tom, floor tom, kick and hi-hat foot.

Alternative / IndieFunk / Soul120 to 149 BPMIntermediate
TEMPO
120 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
100
LENGTH
3:20
DIFFICULTY
78/100
THE BEAT

One bar, and 36% of the song

The beat the song is built on is one bar, played through bars 17-19, 21-23 and 25-27, and 6 more places -- 35.6% of every bar the kit plays. Learn that one and most of the song is already under your hands.

LOOP · 120 BPM
BY THE WAY · BAR 18
THE BEAT, WRITTEN OUT →
THE FILLS

Where it comes off the beat

9 fills to learn, played 22 times: bars 16, 20, 24, 28, 32, 34 and 16 more.

LOOP · 120 BPM
BAR 16 · LANDS ON BAR 17
LOOP · 120 BPM
BAR 20 · LANDS ON BAR 21 · PLAYED 7 TIMES
LOOP · 120 BPM
BAR 32 · LANDS ON BAR 33
LOOP · 120 BPM
BAR 34 · LANDS ON BAR 35 · PLAYED 2 TIMES

5 more fills are written out on the fills page.

EVERY FILL, WRITTEN OUT →
THE SHAPE

How the song is built

100 bars across 10 sections: 54 keep time, 22 are fills and 13 are silent. The longest unbroken stretch of time is bars 8-15.

COUNT-IN
PART B
CHORUS
PART H
CHORUS 2
PART S6
PART B
OUTRO
OUTRO 2
7 groovesDBRHS1+2Fill into the next barFill that ends a sectionInto the next partStop / hitRest

Questions

What BPM is By The Way?

120 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 By The Way hard to play on drums?

78 out of 100: demanding, mostly on the independence between the hands and the feet. The beat itself is 70 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

100 bars, about 3:20 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 33 exercises over 11 sittings, about 25 minutes each.

What do I need on the kit?

crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, high 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 By The Way?

9 fills to learn, played 22 times: bars 16, 20, 24, 28, 32, 34 and 16 more.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 100 BARS ANALYSED
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