← SONGS

Cat's In The Cradle · Harry Chapin

Cat's In The Cradle · Harry Chapin
EXERCISE 6 OF 32
Groove E -- Part E
25 / 67 BARS COVERED
0 / 32 PASSED · 3 BARS LIT · IN THE PART D, PART E
COUNT-IN
PART D
PART H
PART J
CHORUS
PART E
CHORUS 2
OUTRO
8 groovesMHS1ED+3Fill into the next barFill that ends a sectionInto the next partStop / hitRest
GROOVE · 9
FILL · 3
LAND · 3
RUN · 2
JOIN · 6
LINK · 2
SECTION · 6
WHOLE SONG · 1
ABOUT THIS DRUM PART

How to play Cat's In The Cradle on drums

67 bars of 4/4 at a walking 78 BPM, 3:26 of playing, on crash, hi-hat, snare, floor tom and kick.

37 out of 100 -- a fair first song -- with the independence between the hands and the feet the part that decides it.

TEMPO
78 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
67
LENGTH
3:26
DIFFICULTY
37/100

silence through bars 1-11, hi-hat through bars 12-16, kick and crashes through bars 17-18, hi-hat through bars 19-31, kick and crashes through bars 32-33 and hi-hat through bars 34-58, and 2 more changes after that.

The beat

The beat the song is built on is one bar, played through bars 35-39, 52 and 54, and 1 more place -- 16.7% of every bar the kit plays. This one moves around more than most: the beat is where to start, not the whole job.

    35
    1e+a2e+a3e+a4e+a
HH |x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-|
SD |r-------r-------|
BD |---xx-------x---|
Cat's In The Cradle -- the groove · x hit · o open hi-hat · g ghost note · r cross-stick · X accent

The fills

3 fills to learn, played 9 times: bars 26, 47, 48, 62, 63, 64 and 3 more.

What the course does

It cuts the song into 28 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 -- M, D, F -- 3 exercises, about 29 minutes.
  2. Through Part D -- 2 exercises, about 20 minutes.
  3. Through Part D and Part H -- 4 exercises, about 33 minutes. Open above.
  4. Bars 15-28 -- 6 exercises, about 30 minutes.
  5. Bars 27-49 -- 7 exercises, about 30 minutes.
  6. Through Part E and the Chorus 2 -- 5 exercises, about 30 minutes.
  7. The whole song -- 5 exercises, about 30 minutes.
START THE COURSE ↑

Questions

What BPM is Cat's In The Cradle?

78 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 Cat's In The Cradle hard to play on drums?

37 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 33 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

67 bars, about 3:26 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 28 exercises over 7 sittings, about 29 minutes each.

What do I need on the kit?

crash, hi-hat, snare, floor tom and kick. Nothing in the part asks for anything else.

How many fills are in Cat's In The Cradle?

3 fills to learn, played 9 times: bars 26, 47, 48, 62, 63, 64 and 3 more.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 67 BARS ANALYSED