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Careless Whisper by George Michael · Misc Covers

EXERCISE 12 OF 20
Groove K
71 / 78 BARS COVERED
0 / 20 PASSED · 2 BARS LIT · IN THE OUTRO 2
CHORUS
OUTRO
OUTRO 2
2 groovesAEFill into the next barFill that ends a sectionInto the next partStop / hitRest
GROOVE · 5
FILL · 4
LAND · 4
JOIN · 2
LINK · 2
SECTION · 2
WHOLE SONG · 1
ABOUT THIS DRUM PART

How to play Careless Whisper by George Michael on drums

78 bars of 4/4 at a walking 80 BPM, 3:54 of playing, on crash, hi-hat, snare, high tom, mid tom, floor tom and kick.

66 out of 100: demanding, mostly on how much of it falls off the beat.

TEMPO
80 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
78
LENGTH
3:54
DIFFICULTY
66/100

The time is kept on the hi-hat the whole way through.

The beat

The beat the song is built on is one bar, played through bars 1-4, 7-8 and 19-20, and 12 more places -- 50% of every bar the kit plays. Learn that one and most of the song is already under your hands.

    27
    1e+a2e+a3e+a4e+a
HH |x-x-x-x-x-x-x-o-|
SD |xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx|
FT |------------x---|
BD |x------xx-------|
Careless Whisper by George Michael -- the groove · x hit · o open hi-hat · g ghost note · r cross-stick · X accent

The fills

4 fills to learn, played 5 times: bars 17, 37, 45, 53 and 57.

What the course does

It cuts the song into 15 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.

  1. The grooves the song is built on -- A, E -- 2 exercises, about 30 minutes.
  2. Through the Chorus -- 1 exercise, about 17 minutes.
  3. Through the Chorus and the Outro -- 3 exercises, about 26 minutes.
  4. Through the Outro and the Outro 2 -- 5 exercises, about 21 minutes.
  5. Through the Outro 2 -- 5 exercises, about 32 minutes. Open above.
  6. The whole song -- 4 exercises, about 22 minutes.
START THE COURSE ↑

Questions

What BPM is Careless Whisper by George Michael?

80 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 Careless Whisper by George Michael hard to play on drums?

66 out of 100: demanding, mostly on how much of it falls off the beat. The beat itself is 51 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

78 bars, about 3:54 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 15 exercises over 6 sittings, about 25 minutes each.

What do I need on the kit?

crash, hi-hat, snare, high tom, 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 Careless Whisper by George Michael?

4 fills to learn, played 5 times: bars 17, 37, 45, 53 and 57.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 78 BARS ANALYSED