Dirt · Alice in Chains

73 bars, 5:37, at 52 BPM: slow enough that every note is exposed. Crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, high tom, mid tom, floor tom, kick and hi-hat foot and nothing else.

Alternative / IndieRockUnder 90 BPMIntermediate
TEMPO
52 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
73
LENGTH
5:37
DIFFICULTY
75/100
THE BEAT

One bar, and 33% of the song

The beat the song is built on is one bar, played through bars 7-8, 10-12 and 14-16, and 6 more places -- 33.3% of every bar the kit plays. That is the spine of it; everything else is what happens around it.

LOOP · 52 BPM
DIRT · BAR 8
THE BEAT, WRITTEN OUT →
THE FILLS

Where it comes off the beat

9 fills to learn, played 15 times: bars 4, 5, 6, 21, 22, 40 and 9 more.

LOOP · 52 BPM
BARS 4-6 · LANDS ON BAR 7 · PLAYED 3 TIMES
LOOP · 52 BPM
BARS 21-22 · LANDS ON BAR 23 · PLAYED 2 TIMES
LOOP · 52 BPM
BARS 40-41 · LANDS ON BAR 42 · PLAYED 2 TIMES
LOOP · 52 BPM
BAR 43 · LANDS ON BAR 44

5 more fills are written out on the fills page.

EVERY FILL, WRITTEN OUT →
THE SHAPE

How the song is built

73 bars across 10 sections: 47 keep time, 15 are fills and 1 is silent. The longest unbroken stretch of time is bars 23-32.

PART B
CHORUS
PART H
CHORUS 2
PART H
PART M
CHORUS 3
OUTRO
OUTRO 2
5 groovesFHBMS1Fill into the next barFill that ends a sectionInto the next partStop / hitRest

Questions

What BPM is Dirt?

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

Is Dirt hard to play on drums?

75 out of 100: demanding, mostly on the independence between the hands and the feet. The beat itself is 66 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

73 bars, about 5:37 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 30 exercises over 9 sittings, about 27 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 Dirt?

9 fills to learn, played 15 times: bars 4, 5, 6, 21, 22, 40 and 9 more.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 73 BARS ANALYSED
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