Don't Cry · Guns N' Roses

69 bars, 4:20, at 62 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.

RockMetalUnder 90 BPMIntermediate
TEMPO
62 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
69
LENGTH
4:20
DIFFICULTY
50/100
THE BEAT

One bar, and 20% of the song

The beat the song is built on is one bar, played through bars 15, 17 and 32, and 10 more places -- 20.3% of every bar the kit plays. This one moves around more than most: the beat is where to start, not the whole job.

LOOP · 62 BPM
DON'T CRY · BAR 40
THE BEAT, WRITTEN OUT →
THE FILLS

Where it comes off the beat

13 fills to learn, played 23 times: bars 6, 14, 19, 20, 21, 30 and 17 more.

LOOP · 62 BPM
BAR 6 · LANDS ON BAR 7
LOOP · 62 BPM
BAR 14 · LANDS ON BAR 15 · PLAYED 2 TIMES
LOOP · 62 BPM
BARS 19-21 · LANDS ON BAR 22 · PLAYED 3 TIMES

10 more fills are written out on the fills page.

EVERY FILL, WRITTEN OUT →
THE SHAPE

How the song is built

69 bars across 5 sections: 37 keep time, 23 are fills, 2 are stops and 5 are silent. The longest unbroken stretch of time is bars 23-29.

COUNT-IN
PART F
CHORUS
OUTRO
OUTRO 2
4 groovesHEFS1Fill into the next barFill that ends a sectionInto the next partStop / hitRest

Questions

What BPM is Don't Cry?

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

Is Don't Cry hard to play on drums?

50 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 40 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

69 bars, about 4:20 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 25 exercises over 7 sittings, about 26 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 Don't Cry?

13 fills to learn, played 23 times: bars 6, 14, 19, 20, 21, 30 and 17 more.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 69 BARS ANALYSED
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