ABOUT THIS DRUM PART

How to play Counterstrike on drums

132 bars of 4/4 at 140 BPM, about 3:45 of playing, on crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, high tom, mid tom, floor tom and kick.

99 out of 100. Hard, and what makes it hard is how many notes a second it asks for.

TEMPO: 140 BPM
TIME: 4/4
BARS: 132
LENGTH: 3:45
DIFFICULTY: 99/100

toms through bars 1-9, ride through bars 10-18, hi-hat through bars 19-26, ride through bars 27-39, hi-hat through bars 40-47 and ride through bars 48-59, and 3 more changes after that.

The beat

The beat the song is built on is a 2-bar phrase, played through bars 10-17, 27-29 and 31-38, and 5 more places -- 37.9% of every bar the kit plays. Learn that one and most of the song is already under your hands.

    10                                               11
    1...........2...........3...........4........... 1...........2...........3...........4...........
CC |x-----------------------------------------------|------------------------------------------------|
RD |------x--x--x-----x-----x-----x--x--x--x-----x--|x-----x--x--x--x--------x--x--x--x--x--x-----x--|
SD |------x-----------x-----------x-----------x-----|------x-----------x-----------x-----------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--|

Counterstrike -- the groove · x hit · o open hi-hat · g ghost note · r cross-stick · X accent

The fills

11 fills to learn, played 20 times: bars 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7 and 14 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.

The grooves the song is built on -- I -- 3 exercises, about 32 minutes. Open above.
The grooves the song is built on -- O -- 4 exercises, about 28 minutes.
The grooves the song is built on -- K -- 5 exercises, about 35 minutes.
Through Part K and the Chorus 2 -- 6 exercises, about 28 minutes.
Through the Chorus 3 and Part O -- 4 exercises, about 18 minutes.
Through Part O -- 3 exercises, about 28 minutes.
Through Part O -- 2 exercises, about 25 minutes.
Through the Outro -- 3 exercises, about 26 minutes.
and 3 more sittings after that.

START THE COURSE ↑

Questions

What BPM is Counterstrike?

140 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 Counterstrike hard to play on drums?

99 out of 100. Hard, and what makes it hard is how many notes a second it asks for. The beat itself is 85 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

132 bars, about 3:45 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 31 exercises over 11 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 Counterstrike?

11 fills to learn, played 20 times: bars 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7 and 14 more.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 132 BARS ANALYSED