ABOUT THIS DRUM PART

How to play Cerebral Cereal on drums

102 bars of 4/4 at 127 BPM, about 3:11 of playing, on crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, high tom, mid tom, floor tom and kick.

95 out of 100. Hard, and what makes it hard is how many notes a second it asks for.

TEMPO: 127 BPM
TIME: 4/4
BARS: 102
LENGTH: 3:11
DIFFICULTY: 95/100

toms through bars 1-5, hi-hat through bars 6-13, toms through bars 14-17, hi-hat through bars 18-21, ride through bars 22-45 and snare through bars 46-53, and 7 more changes after that.

The beat

The beat the song is built on is a 2-bar phrase, played through bars 22-24, 26-28 and 38-40, and 4 more places -- 18.6% of every bar the kit plays. This one moves around more than most: the beat is where to start, not the whole job.

    22                               23
    1.......2.......3.......4....... 1.......2.......3.......4.......
CC |x-------x---x-------x-----------|x-------x---x-------x-----------|
RD |--x-x-x-------x-x-x---x-x-x-x-x-|--x-x-x-------x-x-x---x-x-x-----|
SD |-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x|-x-x-x-x-x-x-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-|x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-xxx-|

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

The fills

16 fills to learn, played 39 times: bars 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 9 and 33 more.

What the course does

It cuts the song into 39 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 -- K -- 3 exercises, about 29 minutes.
The grooves the song is built on -- F -- 4 exercises, about 36 minutes. Open above.
The grooves the song is built on -- O -- 3 exercises, about 30 minutes.
Bars 9-34 -- 6 exercises, about 27 minutes.
Through the Chorus and Part K -- 6 exercises, about 30 minutes.
Through Part K and Part O -- 8 exercises, about 36 minutes.
Through Part K and Part U -- 5 exercises, about 31 minutes.
Bars 42-55 -- 3 exercises, about 30 minutes.
and 4 more sittings after that.

START THE COURSE ↑

Questions

What BPM is Cerebral Cereal?

127 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 Cerebral Cereal hard to play on drums?

95 out of 100. Hard, and what makes it hard is how many notes a second it asks for. The beat itself is 96 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

102 bars, about 3:11 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 39 exercises over 12 sittings, about 29 minutes each.

What do I need on the kit?

crash, ride, 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 Cerebral Cereal?

16 fills to learn, played 39 times: bars 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 9 and 33 more.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 102 BARS ANALYSED