ABOUT THIS DRUM PART

How to play Close To A World Below on drums

302 bars of 4/4 at 135 BPM, about 10:00 of playing, on crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, high tom, mid tom, floor tom and kick.

80 out of 100. Hard, and what makes it hard is the independence between the hands and the feet.

TEMPO: 135 BPM
TIME: 4/4
BARS: 302
LENGTH: 10:00
DIFFICULTY: 80/100

kick and crashes through bars 1-8, ride through bars 9-10, kick and crashes through bars 11-12, ride through bars 13-14, kick and crashes through bars 15-24 and hi-hat through bars 25-40, and 28 more changes after that.

The beat

The beat the song is built on is a 2-bar phrase, played through bars 49-56, 61-68 and 87-94, and 3 more places -- 18.3% of every bar the kit plays. This one moves around more than most: the beat is where to start, not the whole job.

    49                               50
    1.......2.......3.......4....... 1.......2.......3.......4.......
CC |x-------------------------------|----------------x---------------|
HH |--------o-------o-------o-------|o-------o-----------------------|
SD |x-----------x---x-----------x---|x---------------x---------------|
T1 |--------------------------------|------------------------x-------|
T2 |--------------------------------|------------------------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-x-x-|

Close To A World Below -- the groove · x hit · o open hi-hat · g ghost note · r cross-stick · X accent

The fills

12 fills to learn, played 31 times: bars 11, 12, 28, 32, 36, 40 and 25 more.

What the course does

It cuts the song into 71 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 -- O -- 2 exercises, about 24 minutes.
The grooves the song is built on -- Q -- 1 exercise, about 14 minutes.
The grooves the song is built on -- T -- 1 exercise, about 20 minutes.
Through Part B -- 2 exercises, about 18 minutes.
Bars 7-42 -- 3 exercises, about 30 minutes.
Bars 5-18 -- 6 exercises, about 26 minutes.
Through Part E and Part H -- 6 exercises, about 35 minutes. Open above.
Bars 26-60 -- 7 exercises, about 29 minutes.
and 14 more sittings after that.

START THE COURSE ↑

Questions

What BPM is Close To A World Below?

135 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 Close To A World Below hard to play on drums?

80 out of 100. Hard, and what makes it hard is the independence between the hands and the feet. The beat itself is 78 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

302 bars, about 10:00 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 71 exercises over 22 sittings, about 25 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 Close To A World Below?

12 fills to learn, played 31 times: bars 11, 12, 28, 32, 36, 40 and 25 more.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 302 BARS ANALYSED