ABOUT THIS DRUM PART

How to play Decades on drums

114 bars of 4/4 at 120 BPM, about 3:43 of playing, on crash, hi-hat, snare, high tom, mid tom, floor tom and kick.

67 out of 100: demanding, mostly on the independence between the hands and the feet.

TEMPO: 120 BPM
TIME: 4/4
BARS: 114
LENGTH: 3:43
DIFFICULTY: 67/100

toms through bar 1, kick and crashes through bars 2-9, snare through bars 10-12, toms through bars 13-17, hi-hat through bars 18-33 and kick and crashes through bars 34-37, and 9 more changes after that.

The beat

The beat the song is built on is a 2-bar phrase, played through bars 46, 48-50 and 52-53, and 2 more places -- 11.6% of every bar the kit plays. This one moves around more than most: the beat is where to start, not the whole job.

    48                                               49
    1...........2...........3...........4........... 1...........2...........3...........4...........
CC |x-----------x-----------x-----------x-----------|x-----------x-----------x--------x--------x-----|
SD |------------------------x-----------------------|------------------------x-----------------------|
BD |x--------x--x-----x--------x-----x--x-----x-----|---x-----x--x-----x--------------x--------x-----|

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

The fills

14 fills to learn, played 20 times: bars 1, 5, 9, 13, 14, 15 and 14 more.

What the course does

It cuts the song into 45 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 -- Z, L -- 2 exercises, about 28 minutes.
The grooves the song is built on -- V -- 5 exercises, about 28 minutes.
Through Part B -- 3 exercises, about 19 minutes.
Through Part F and Part L -- 4 exercises, about 34 minutes. Open above.
Bars 1-21 -- 6 exercises, about 26 minutes.
Through Part L -- 3 exercises, about 26 minutes.
Bars 18-64 -- 3 exercises, about 29 minutes.
Through Part Q and Part V -- 4 exercises, about 28 minutes.
and 7 more sittings after that.

START THE COURSE ↑

Questions

What BPM is Decades?

120 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 Decades hard to play on drums?

67 out of 100: demanding, mostly on the independence between the hands and the feet. The beat itself is 54 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

114 bars, about 3:43 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 45 exercises over 15 sittings, about 26 minutes each.

What do I need on the kit?

crash, 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 Decades?

14 fills to learn, played 20 times: bars 1, 5, 9, 13, 14, 15 and 14 more.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 114 BARS ANALYSED