← SONGS

CHEMELEON · Maynard Ferguson

CHEMELEON · Maynard Ferguson
EXERCISE 1 OF 42
Groove E -- Chorus
0 / 114 BARS COVERED
0 / 42 PASSED · 26 BARS LIT · IN THE CHORUS, CHORUS 2
CHORUS
PART F
CHORUS 2
PART U
PART Z
PART AH
PART Q
9 groovesEAHFQZ+4Fill into the next barFill that ends a sectionInto the next partStop / hitRest
GROOVE · 9
FILL · 5
LAND · 5
RUN · 3
JOIN · 7
LINK · 4
SECTION · 8
WHOLE SONG · 1
ABOUT THIS DRUM PART

How to play CHEMELEON on drums

114 bars of 4/4 at a walking 95 BPM, 4:41 of playing, on crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, high tom, mid tom, floor tom, kick and hi-hat foot.

62 out of 100, a step up from a first song, and the work is in how fine the subdivision is.

TEMPO
95 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
114
LENGTH
4:41
DIFFICULTY
62/100

toms through bar 1, snare through bars 2-3, silence through bars 4-5, hi-hat through bars 6-33, toms through bars 34-36 and hi-hat through bars 37-54, and 8 more changes after that.

The beat

The beat the song is built on is one bar, played through bars 6-7, 9-13 and 15-16, and 3 more places -- 23.4% of every bar the kit plays. This one moves around more than most: the beat is where to start, not the whole job.

    6
    1.......2.......3.......4.......
HH |x---x---x---x---x---o---x---x---|
SD |------x-------x---------x-------|
BD |x-----------------x-x-----------|
CHEMELEON -- the groove · x hit · o open hi-hat · g ghost note · r cross-stick · X accent

The fills

5 fills to learn, played 19 times: bars 30, 56, 78, 80, 81, 82 and 13 more.

What the course does

It cuts the song into 36 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, F -- 5 exercises, about 35 minutes.
  2. The grooves the song is built on -- Q -- 3 exercises, about 22 minutes.
  3. Through Part F and the Chorus 2 -- 4 exercises, about 25 minutes.
  4. Bars 47-55 -- 4 exercises, about 29 minutes.
  5. Through Part F and Part U -- 3 exercises, about 23 minutes.
  6. Through Part U and Part Z -- 3 exercises, about 21 minutes.
  7. Through Part Z and Part AH -- 4 exercises, about 29 minutes.
  8. Through Part AH -- 5 exercises, about 25 minutes.
  9. and 3 more sittings after that.
START THE COURSE ↑

Questions

What BPM is CHEMELEON?

95 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 CHEMELEON hard to play on drums?

62 out of 100, a step up from a first song, and the work is in how fine the subdivision is. The beat itself is 47 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

114 bars, about 4:41 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 36 exercises over 11 sittings, about 25 minutes each.

What do I need on the kit?

crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, high tom, mid tom, floor tom, kick and hi-hat foot. That is most of a full kit; the part moves around it rather than sitting in one place.

How many fills are in CHEMELEON?

5 fills to learn, played 19 times: bars 30, 56, 78, 80, 81, 82 and 13 more.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 114 BARS ANALYSED