Carefree Highway - Gordon Lightfoot · 1974 HITS ARCHIVE

116 bars of 2/4 -- not four -- at 85 BPM, 3:39 of playing on crash, hi-hat, snare, mid tom, floor tom and kick.

Under 90 BPMBeginner
TEMPO
85 BPM
TIME
2/4
BARS
116
LENGTH
3:39
DIFFICULTY
39/100
THE BEAT

One bar, and 54% of the song

The beat the song is built on is one bar, played through bars 16, 38 and 46-47, and 11 more places -- 54% of every bar the kit plays. Learn that one and most of the song is already under your hands.

LOOP · 85 BPM
CAREFREE HIGHWAY - GORDON LIGHTFOOT · BAR 38
THE BEAT, WRITTEN OUT →
THE FILLS

Where it comes off the beat

2 fills to learn, played 3 times: bars 39, 74 and 97.

LOOP · 85 BPM
BAR 39 · LANDS ON BAR 40
LOOP · 85 BPM
BAR 74 · LANDS ON BAR 75 · PLAYED 2 TIMES
EVERY FILL, WRITTEN OUT →
THE SHAPE

How the song is built

116 bars across 3 sections: 104 keep time, 3 are fills, 5 are stops and 3 are silent. The longest unbroken stretch of time is bars 49-73.

OUTRO
OUTRO 2
3 groovesECS1Fill into the next barFill that ends a sectionInto the next partStop / hitRest

Questions

What BPM is Carefree Highway - Gordon Lightfoot?

85 BPM, in 2/4, 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 Carefree Highway - Gordon Lightfoot hard to play on drums?

39 out of 100 -- a fair first song -- with the independence between the hands and the feet the part that decides it. The beat itself is 18 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

116 bars, about 3:39 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 12 exercises over 4 sittings, about 25 minutes each.

What do I need on the kit?

crash, 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 Carefree Highway - Gordon Lightfoot?

2 fills to learn, played 3 times: bars 39, 74 and 97.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 116 BARS ANALYSED
AT THIS LEVEL

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