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(Don't Fear) The Reaper · Blue Öyster Cult

EXERCISE 18 OF 62
Groove J
127 / 182 BARS COVERED
0 / 62 PASSED · 2 BARS LIT · IN THE CHORUS, CHORUS 3
PART D
CHORUS
CHORUS 2
PART H
CHORUS 3
PART S9
PART D
PART H
OUTRO 2
12 groovesFDAIHS9+7Fill into the next barFill that ends a sectionInto the next partStop / hitRest
GROOVE · 11
FILL · 11
LAND · 11
RUN · 3
JOIN · 12
LINK · 6
SECTION · 7
WHOLE SONG · 1
ABOUT THIS DRUM PART

How to play (Don't Fear) The Reaper on drums

182 bars of 4/4 at 142 BPM, about 5:08 of playing, on crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, high tom, mid tom, kick and hi-hat foot.

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

TEMPO
142 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
182
LENGTH
5:08
DIFFICULTY
74/100

silence through bars 1-4, ride through bars 5-16, hi-hat through bars 17-20, ride through bars 21-40, silence through bars 41-45 and ride through bars 46-57, and 11 more changes after that.

The beat

The beat the song is built on is one bar, played through bars 9-10, 21-28 and 30-32, and 10 more places -- 24.9% of every bar the kit plays. This one moves around more than most: the beat is where to start, not the whole job.

    10
    1e+a2e+a3e+a4e+a
RD |x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-|
SD |----x-------x---|
BD |x-x---x-x-x---x-|
(Don't Fear) The Reaper -- the groove · x hit · o open hi-hat · g ghost note · r cross-stick · X accent

The fills

11 fills to learn, played 23 times: bars 4, 8, 16, 29, 33, 37 and 17 more.

What the course does

It cuts the song into 50 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 -- F -- 2 exercises, about 19 minutes.
  2. The grooves the song is built on -- D -- 3 exercises, about 24 minutes.
  3. The grooves the song is built on -- AI -- 1 exercise, about 17 minutes.
  4. Through Part D -- 4 exercises, about 24 minutes.
  5. Bars 16-58 -- 7 exercises, about 31 minutes.
  6. Bars 21-61 -- 5 exercises, about 34 minutes. Open above.
  7. Bars 64-97 -- 7 exercises, about 29 minutes.
  8. Through Part S9 and Part T -- 3 exercises, about 26 minutes.
  9. and 7 more sittings after that.
START THE COURSE ↑

Questions

What BPM is (Don't Fear) The Reaper?

142 BPM, in 4/4, with the time kept in sixteenth 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 (Don't Fear) The Reaper hard to play on drums?

74 out of 100: demanding, mostly on the independence between the hands and the feet. The beat itself is 46 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

182 bars, about 5:08 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 50 exercises over 15 sittings, about 26 minutes each.

What do I need on the kit?

crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, high tom, mid 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 Fear) The Reaper?

11 fills to learn, played 23 times: bars 4, 8, 16, 29, 33, 37 and 17 more.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 182 BARS ANALYSED