Comfortably Numb · Pink Floyd

101 bars, 6:19, at 64 BPM: slow enough that every note is exposed. Crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, high tom, mid tom, floor tom and kick and nothing else.

RockProgressiveUnder 90 BPMBeginner
TEMPO
64 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
101
LENGTH
6:19
DIFFICULTY
44/100
THE BEAT

One bar, and 36% of the song

The beat the song is built on is one bar, played through bars 15, 19 and 21, and 18 more places -- 35.6% of every bar the kit plays. Learn that one and most of the song is already under your hands.

LOOP · 64 BPM
COMFORTABLY NUMB · BAR 15
THE BEAT, WRITTEN OUT →
THE FILLS

Where it comes off the beat

5 fills to learn, played 11 times: bars 30, 33, 35, 37, 41, 68 and 5 more.

LOOP · 64 BPM
BAR 30 · LANDS ON BAR 31 · PLAYED 2 TIMES
LOOP · 64 BPM
BAR 33 · LANDS ON BAR 34 · PLAYED 5 TIMES
LOOP · 64 BPM
BAR 37 · LANDS ON BAR 38
LOOP · 64 BPM
BAR 41 · LANDS ON BAR 42 · PLAYED 2 TIMES

1 more fill is written out on the fills page.

EVERY FILL, WRITTEN OUT →
THE SHAPE

How the song is built

101 bars across 6 sections: 82 keep time, 11 are fills and 1 is a stop. The longest unbroken stretch of time is bars 1-14.

PART B
CHORUS
PART B
CHORUS 2
OUTRO
4 groovesCBNQFill into the next barFill that ends a sectionInto the next partStop / hitRest

Questions

What BPM is Comfortably Numb?

64 BPM, in 4/4, with the time kept in sixteenth notes. Slow enough to hear every mistake, which is why the room lets you sit at the written tempo rather than under it.

Is Comfortably Numb hard to play on drums?

44 out of 100 -- a fair first song -- with the independence between the hands and the feet the part that decides it. The beat itself is 24 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

101 bars, about 6:19 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 25 exercises over 7 sittings, about 26 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 Comfortably Numb?

5 fills to learn, played 11 times: bars 30, 33, 35, 37, 41, 68 and 5 more.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 101 BARS ANALYSED
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