Deacon Blues · Steely Dan

210 bars of 4/4 at 116 BPM, about 7:15 of playing, on crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, high tom, mid tom, floor tom, kick and hi-hat foot.

Jazz / BluesPop90 to 119 BPM
TEMPO
116 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
210
LENGTH
7:15
DIFFICULTY
51/100
THE BEAT

One bar, and 57% of the song

The beat the song is built on is one bar, played through bars 7-21, 23-37 and 61-75, and 5 more places -- 57.1% of every bar the kit plays. Learn that one and most of the song is already under your hands.

LOOP · 116 BPM
DEACON BLUES · BAR 7
THE BEAT, WRITTEN OUT →
THE FILLS

Where it comes off the beat

2 fills to learn, played 5 times: bars 136, 137, 138, 177 and 178.

LOOP · 116 BPM
BARS 136-138 · LANDS ON BAR 139 · PLAYED 3 TIMES
LOOP · 116 BPM
BARS 177-178 · LANDS ON BAR 179 · PLAYED 2 TIMES
EVERY FILL, WRITTEN OUT →
THE SHAPE

How the song is built

210 bars across 10 sections: 187 keep time, 5 are fills and 1 is a stop. The longest unbroken stretch of time is bars 180-210.

CHORUS
PART H
CHORUS 2
PART H
CHORUS 3
CHORUS 4
OUTRO
OUTRO 2
4 groovesFHNCFill into the next barFill that ends a sectionInto the next partStop / hitRest

Questions

What BPM is Deacon Blues?

116 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 Deacon Blues hard to play on drums?

51 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?

210 bars, about 7:15 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 22 exercises over 7 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 Deacon Blues?

2 fills to learn, played 5 times: bars 136, 137, 138, 177 and 178.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 210 BARS ANALYSED
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