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Don't Take Me Alive · Steely Dan

EXERCISE 21 OF 48
Run J1 · Chorus (bars 14-28)
85 / 123 BARS COVERED
0 / 48 PASSED · 15 BARS LIT · IN THE CHORUS
PART C
CHORUS
PART Q
PART H
CHORUS 2
PART H
CHORUS 3
PART I
PART A
CHORUS 4
9 groovesJHAQC+4Fill into the next barFill that ends a sectionInto the next partStop / hitRest
GROOVE · 14
FILL · 5
LAND · 5
RUN · 1
JOIN · 9
LINK · 6
SECTION · 7
WHOLE SONG · 1
ABOUT THIS DRUM PART

How to play Don't Take Me Alive on drums

123 bars of 4/4 at 120 BPM, about 4:05 of playing, on crash, hi-hat, snare, high tom, mid tom, floor tom and kick.

43 out of 100 -- a fair first song -- with the independence between the hands and the feet the part that decides it.

TEMPO
120 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
123
LENGTH
4:05
DIFFICULTY
43/100

silence through bars 1-5, hi-hat through bars 6-77, toms through bars 78-81, hi-hat through bars 82-85, toms through bars 86-87 and hi-hat through bars 88-92, and 6 more changes after that.

The beat

The beat the song is built on is one bar, played through bars 14, 34 and 40-43, and 9 more places -- 16.1% of every bar the kit plays. This one moves around more than most: the beat is where to start, not the whole job.

    41
    1e+a2e+a3e+a4e+a
HH |x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-|
SD |----x-------x---|
BD |--------x-x---x-|
Don't Take Me Alive -- the groove · x hit · o open hi-hat · g ghost note · r cross-stick · X accent

The fills

5 fills to learn, played 7 times: bars 10, 11, 21, 23, 31, 65 and 1 more.

What the course does

It cuts the song into 42 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, I -- 2 exercises, about 23 minutes.
  2. The grooves the song is built on -- J -- 2 exercises, about 21 minutes.
  3. Through Part C -- 4 exercises, about 24 minutes.
  4. Through Part C and the Chorus -- 4 exercises, about 22 minutes.
  5. Bars 20-54 -- 4 exercises, about 27 minutes.
  6. Through the Chorus and Part Q -- 4 exercises, about 30 minutes.
  7. Through the Chorus and Part Q -- 6 exercises, about 32 minutes. Open above.
  8. Bars 29-73 -- 6 exercises, about 28 minutes.
  9. and 4 more sittings after that.
START THE COURSE ↑

Questions

What BPM is Don't Take Me Alive?

120 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 Take Me Alive hard to play on drums?

43 out of 100 -- a fair first song -- with the independence between the hands and the feet the part that decides it. The beat itself is 31 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

123 bars, about 4:05 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 42 exercises over 12 sittings, about 25 minutes each.

What do I need on the kit?

crash, hi-hat, snare, high tom, mid tom, floor tom and kick. 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 Take Me Alive?

5 fills to learn, played 7 times: bars 10, 11, 21, 23, 31, 65 and 1 more.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 123 BARS ANALYSED