Chain Lightning · Steely Dan

70 bars of 4/4 at a walking 98 BPM, 2:50 of playing, on crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, mid tom and kick.

Jazz / BluesPop90 to 119 BPM
TEMPO
98 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
70
LENGTH
2:50
DIFFICULTY
76/100
THE BEAT

One bar, and 17% of the song

The beat the song is built on is one bar, played through bars 13-16, 21-24 and 45-48 -- 17.4% of every bar the kit plays. This one moves around more than most: the beat is where to start, not the whole job.

LOOP · 98 BPM
CHAIN LIGHTNING · BAR 13
THE BEAT, WRITTEN OUT →
THE FILLS

Where it comes off the beat

1 fill to learn, played 1 time: bar 37.

LOOP · 98 BPM
BAR 37 · LANDS ON BAR 38
EVERY FILL, WRITTEN OUT →
THE SHAPE

How the song is built

70 bars across 14 sections: 53 keep time, 1 is a fill and 1 is silent. The longest unbroken stretch of time is bars 7-12.

PART B
PART D
CHORUS
PART F
CHORUS 2
PART G
PART H
PART I
CHORUS 3
PART D
PART L
OUTRO
OUTRO 2
11 groovesEDINB+6Fill into the next barFill that ends a sectionInto the next partStop / hitRest

Questions

What BPM is Chain Lightning?

98 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 Chain Lightning hard to play on drums?

76 out of 100: demanding, mostly on the independence between the hands and the feet. The beat itself is 55 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

70 bars, about 2:50 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 37 exercises over 15 sittings, about 23 minutes each.

What do I need on the kit?

crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, mid 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 Chain Lightning?

1 fill to learn, played 1 time: bar 37.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 70 BARS ANALYSED
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