← SONGS

Circles · Incubus

EXERCISE 16 OF 38
Groove I -- Chorus (a two-bar phrase)
57 / 92 BARS COVERED
0 / 38 PASSED · 8 BARS LIT · IN THE CHORUS, CHORUS 2, OUTRO
PART A
PART H
CHORUS
PART H
CHORUS 2
PART Q
OUTRO
OUTRO 2
5 groovesIHQAEFill into the next barFill that ends a sectionInto the next partStop / hitRest
GROOVE · 8
FILL · 6
LAND · 6
RUN · 1
JOIN · 6
LINK · 6
SECTION · 4
WHOLE SONG · 1
ABOUT THIS DRUM PART

How to play Circles on drums

92 bars of 4/4 at a walking 92 BPM, 3:56 of playing, on crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, high tom, mid tom, floor tom, kick and hi-hat foot.

58 out of 100, a step up from a first song, and the work is in the independence between the hands and the feet.

TEMPO
92 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
92
LENGTH
3:56
DIFFICULTY
58/100

hi-hat through bars 1-6, snare through bars 7-14, hi-hat through bars 15-28, ride through bars 29-36, hi-hat through bars 37-48 and ride through bars 49-72, and 4 more changes after that.

The beat

The beat the song is built on is one bar, played through bars 17-24 and 37-44 -- 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.

    17
    1e+a2e+a3e+a4e+a
CC |x-------x-------|
HH |--o-o-o---o-o-o-|
SD |----x-------x---|
BD |xx------xx------|
Circles -- the groove · x hit · o open hi-hat · g ghost note · r cross-stick · X accent

The fills

6 fills to learn, played 24 times: bars 5, 6, 15, 16, 27, 28 and 18 more.

What the course does

It cuts the song into 31 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 -- H, L -- 2 exercises, about 27 minutes.
  2. The grooves the song is built on -- D -- 5 exercises, about 37 minutes.
  3. Through Part A and Part H -- 4 exercises, about 28 minutes.
  4. Through Part H -- 4 exercises, about 27 minutes.
  5. Through Part H and the Chorus -- 6 exercises, about 32 minutes. Open above.
  6. Bars 32-49 -- 5 exercises, about 22 minutes.
  7. Through the Chorus 2 and Part Q -- 6 exercises, about 30 minutes.
  8. Bars 69-88 -- 5 exercises, about 24 minutes.
  9. and 1 more sittings after that.
START THE COURSE ↑

Questions

What BPM is Circles?

92 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 Circles hard to play on drums?

58 out of 100, a step up from a first song, and the work is in the independence between the hands and the feet. The beat itself is 37 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

92 bars, about 3:56 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 31 exercises over 9 sittings, about 26 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 Circles?

6 fills to learn, played 24 times: bars 5, 6, 15, 16, 27, 28 and 18 more.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 92 BARS ANALYSED