← SONGS

Down To Mexico · Paul Gilbert

EXERCISE 7 OF 24
Groove F
85 / 120 BARS COVERED
0 / 24 PASSED · 3 BARS LIT · IN THE CHORUS, CHORUS 2, CHORUS 3
PART A
CHORUS
CHORUS 2
CHORUS 3
CHORUS 4
OUTRO
OUTRO 2
5 groovesCIKEAFill into the next barFill that ends a sectionInto the next partStop / hitRest
GROOVE · 7
FILL · 2
LAND · 2
JOIN · 5
LINK · 3
SECTION · 4
WHOLE SONG · 1
ABOUT THIS DRUM PART

How to play Down To Mexico on drums

120 bars of 4/4 at 132 BPM, about 3:38 of playing, on crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, high tom, mid tom, floor tom, kick and hi-hat foot.

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

TEMPO
132 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
120
LENGTH
3:38
DIFFICULTY
52/100

kick and crashes through bars 1-8, snare through bars 9-17, hi-hat through bars 18-25, ride through bars 26-29, hi-hat through bars 30-33 and snare through bars 34-41, and 12 more changes after that.

The beat

The beat the song is built on is one bar, played through bars 10, 12 and 14, and 20 more places -- 22.5% 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
CC |x---x---x---x---|
SD |----x-------x---|
BD |x------xx-x---x-|
Down To Mexico -- the groove · x hit · o open hi-hat · g ghost note · r cross-stick · X accent

The fills

2 fills to learn, played 2 times: bars 106 and 119.

What the course does

It cuts the song into 21 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 -- C, E -- 2 exercises, about 23 minutes.
  2. The grooves the song is built on -- G (a two-bar phrase) -- 2 exercises, about 18 minutes.
  3. Through Part A and the Chorus -- 2 exercises, about 18 minutes.
  4. Through the Chorus and Part I -- 3 exercises, about 30 minutes. Open above.
  5. Through Part I and the Chorus 2 -- 4 exercises, about 27 minutes.
  6. Bars 98-114 -- 7 exercises, about 31 minutes.
  7. The whole song -- 4 exercises, about 21 minutes.
START THE COURSE ↑

Questions

What BPM is Down To Mexico?

132 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 Down To Mexico hard to play on drums?

52 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 35 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

120 bars, about 3:38 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 21 exercises over 7 sittings, about 24 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 Down To Mexico?

2 fills to learn, played 2 times: bars 106 and 119.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 120 BARS ANALYSED