NIGHT IN THE WOODS (OST) · DRUM BEAT

The drum beat in Die Anywhere Else

The beat the song is built on is one bar, played through bars 19-21, 23-25 and 27-29, and 6 more places -- 21.4% of every bar the kit plays. This one moves around more than most: the beat is where to start, not the whole job.

TEMPO
156 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
98
LENGTH
2:31
DIFFICULTY
40/100

The beat, written out

LOOP · 156 BPM
DIE ANYWHERE ELSE · BAR 19

It is played on hi-hat, snare, floor tom and kick, counted in sixteenth notes. On its own it scores 37 out of 100 -- a fair first song -- and the thing that decides that is how many notes a second it asks for.

The whole song is 40 out of 100, so the beat is most of what the song asks for. Get it clean and the rest follows.

How to get it under your hands

The room opens this beat on its simplest reduction, at 117 BPM, and adds the notes back a rung at a time -- 3 of them. Nothing is a matter of opinion: each rung has a tempo to reach and a gate to pass before the next one.

  1. Skeleton. Only the notes that land on a beat. The point is to feel where this bar stands.
  2. Kick and snare, whole. The feet and the snare exactly as written, hi-hat pulled back to quarter notes. This is the part to know by heart.
  3. As written. Open hi-hat, ghost notes, accents and the crash where they belong.

Tempo goes 117, 137 and 156 BPM, and the gate at each one is 8 loops in a row with no wrong note and no wobble in the time.

PRACTISE THIS BEAT →

Questions

What drum beat does Die Anywhere Else use?

A one-bar groove on hi-hat, snare, floor tom and kick, in 4/4 at 156 BPM, counted in sixteenth notes. It is written out above, and it covers 21.4% of the bars the kit plays.

Where does the beat come in?

Bars 19-21, 23-25, 27-29 and 51-53, and 5 more places. The time is kept on the hi-hat to start with, and it changes 6 times over the song.

Is the beat in Die Anywhere Else hard?

37 out of 100 on its own -- a fair first song. The song as a whole is 40 out of 100 -- a fair first song -- with the independence between the hands and the feet the part that decides it.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 98 BARS ANALYSED