← SONGS

Chain Lightning · Steely Dan

EXERCISE 2 OF 39
Groove D -- Part D
12 / 70 BARS COVERED
0 / 39 PASSED · 11 BARS LIT · IN THE PART D
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
GROOVE · 13
FILL · 1
LAND · 1
RUN · 1
JOIN · 12
LINK · 1
SECTION · 9
WHOLE SONG · 1
ABOUT THIS DRUM PART

How to play Chain Lightning on drums

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

76 out of 100: demanding, mostly on the independence between the hands and the feet.

TEMPO
98 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
70
LENGTH
2:50
DIFFICULTY
76/100

hi-hat through bars 2-12, ride through bars 13-37, hi-hat through bars 38-40, ride through bars 41-48, hi-hat through bars 49-56 and ride through bars 57-64, and 1 more change after that.

The beat

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.

    13
    1...........2...........3...........4...........
RD |x-----------x-----------x-----------x-----------|
SD |------------x-----------------------x-----------|
BD |x-------------------x---x-------------------x---|
Chain Lightning -- the groove · x hit · o open hi-hat · g ghost note · r cross-stick · X accent

The fills

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

What the course does

It cuts the song into 37 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 -- E -- 1 exercise, about 15 minutes.
  2. The grooves the song is built on -- D -- 1 exercise, about 17 minutes. Open above.
  3. The grooves the song is built on -- H -- 1 exercise, about 14 minutes.
  4. Through Part B and Part D -- 3 exercises, about 27 minutes.
  5. Bars 6-17 -- 3 exercises, about 26 minutes.
  6. Bars 15-21 -- 3 exercises, about 14 minutes.
  7. Through the Chorus 2 and Part G -- 3 exercises, about 26 minutes.
  8. Bars 27-33 -- 3 exercises, about 28 minutes.
  9. and 7 more sittings after that.
START THE COURSE ↑

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