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Don't Cry · Guns N' Roses

EXERCISE 30 OF 39
Join Outro to Outro 2 (bars 53-55)
56 / 69 BARS COVERED
0 / 39 PASSED · 3 BARS LIT · IN THE OUTRO, OUTRO 2
COUNT-IN
PART F
CHORUS
OUTRO
OUTRO 2
4 groovesHEFS1Fill into the next barFill that ends a sectionInto the next partStop / hitRest
GROOVE · 5
FILL · 13
LAND · 13
RUN · 1
JOIN · 3
SECTION · 3
WHOLE SONG · 1
ABOUT THIS DRUM PART

How to play Don't Cry on drums

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.

50 out of 100, a step up from a first song, and the work is in the independence between the hands and the feet.

TEMPO
62 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
69
LENGTH
4:20
DIFFICULTY
50/100

silence through bars 1-6, hi-hat through bars 7-14, ride through bars 15-22, hi-hat through bars 23-31, ride through bars 32-47 and hi-hat through bars 48-54, and 1 more change after that.

The beat

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.

    40
    1e+a2e+a3e+a4e+a
CC |x---------------|
RD |--x-x-x-x-x-x-x-|
SD |----x-------x---|
BD |x--x---xx-x----x|
Don't Cry -- the groove · x hit · o open hi-hat · g ghost note · r cross-stick · X accent

The fills

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

What the course does

It cuts the song into 25 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.

  1. The grooves the song is built on -- H -- 5 exercises, about 28 minutes.
  2. The grooves the song is built on -- E, F -- 5 exercises, about 30 minutes.
  3. Through Part F and the Chorus -- 5 exercises, about 31 minutes.
  4. Through the Chorus and the Outro -- 9 exercises, about 28 minutes.
  5. Bars 46-56 -- 5 exercises, about 29 minutes.
  6. The whole song -- 8 exercises, about 32 minutes. Open above.
  7. Through the Outro 2 -- 2 exercises, about 7 minutes.
START THE COURSE ↑

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